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SOLO EXHIBITIONS Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, United States October 1, 2016 - February 17, 2017 Nkame : A Retrospective of the Cuban engraver Belkis Ayón (1967-1999) The exhibition Nkame: A Retrospective of the Cuban engraver Belkis Ayón will be inaugurated on October 1 at the Fowler Museum of UCLA, Los Angeles, California. This will be the artist's first personal exhibition at an institution in the United States. (...) Read more FRG Objects & Design / Art, Hudson, New York, United States August 2 - September 30, 2014 Belkis Ayón. FRG Objects & Design / Art The FRG OBJECTS & DESIGN / ART gallery, specialized in the art of design, from Hudson, New York, had the pleasure of presenting in August of last year, a collection of visionary pieces, rarely appreciated in the United States, by the Cuban artist Belkis Ayón (Havana, 1967-1999) (...) Read more Convent of San Francisco de Asis, Old Havana, Cuba. September 11 - November 28, 2009 Nkame : Belkis Ayón (1967-1999) Anthological Exhibition This Nkame, synonymous with praise and salutation in the Abakuá language, is the title of the exhibition (and the eponymous book in the process of being edited) that will pay tribute, on the tenth anniversary of her physical disappearance, to a creator she left with her death a message of life (...) Read more Patrician Doran Graduate Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts, United States April 8, 2013 Belkis Ayón. Early work After the successful presentations in different cities of the United States while traveling through this country, the exhibition Nkame. A retrospective of the Cuban engraver Belkis Ayón (1967-1999), arrives at the Station Museum in Houston, Texas. The exhibition (...) Read more Havana Gallery, Havana, Cuba November 15, 2000 I always return. Collographies by Belkis Ayón Read more previous next

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FEBRUARY, 2020: NKAME ARRIVES AT THE CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER January 2020 Yadira Leyva Ayón © Belkis Ayón Estate The traveling exhibition Nkame: A Retrospective of the Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón (1967-1999) will be inaugurated on February 29, 2020, at its sixth venue, the Chicago Cultural Center. A project developed by this prestigious institution and the Belkis Ayón Estate, Havana, Cuba. The exhibition is curated by Cristina Vives. Tour Management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. PREVIOUS NEWS NEXT NEWS

DINNER - AUCTION WITHIN THE EVENTS OF THE SIXTHAND LAST EDITION OF THE LEO BROUWER INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL Havana Cuba. October 5, 2014 Within the events of the Leo Brouwer International Chamber Music Festival in its sixth and last edition, a Dinner-Auction was held on Sunday, October 5, 2014 in the Scepter Salon of the Hotel Meliá Cohiba, a Dinner-Auction with the noble objective of raising funds for the Children's Room of the Oncological Hospital. In it, works by Cuban visual artists were put up for auction: Belkis Ayón, Eduardo Roca (Choco), Manuel Mendive, Roberto Fabelo, Alfredo Sosabravo, Alexis Leyva "KCHO", Esterio Segura, Moisés Finalé and Nelson Domínguez. Of which only with the sale of the works of Mendive, Fabelo and Finalé, it was possible to contribute with such a laudable purpose.

NKAME : BELKIS AYÓN. ANTHOLOGICAL EXHIBITION Convent of San Francisco de Asís, Old Havana, Havana, Cuba. September 11 to November 28, 2009 Curator: Cristina Vives Project Management: Dra. Katia Ayón Manso. Estate of Belkis Ayón. NATIONAL CURATORSHIP AWARD, 2009, granted by the National Council of Plastic Arts, Havana, Cuba. General coordinator: Katia Ayón, Belkis Ayón Estate In the book Los Ñañigos by Enrique Sosa Rodríguez, Casa de las Américas, 1982, page 249 (copy from the artist's bookshelf), Belkis Ayón marked, years before he died, in blue ink, the nkame that modern ñañigos inscribe along with the christian tomb of the dead abanekwe: «Do not remember in your dream none of your brothers that mourn your absence. " This Nkame, synonymous with praise and salutation in the Abakuá language, is the title of the exhibition (and the eponymous book in process of editing) that will pay tribute, on the tenth anniversary of her physical disappearance, to a creator who left with her death a message of life. The Belkis Ayón Estate and the City Historian's Office announce the inauguration of this anthological exhibition that will remain open to the public until November 28, 2009. The exhibition includes 83 works executed in the techniques of collography, lithography, and intaglio made between 1984, during her studies at the San Alejandro Academy, until the series carried out between 1998-1999, which constituted her last personal exhibition in Los Angeles, California. For the first time, all the large-format works that the artist produced since the beginning of her career will be seen as a whole, some of them accompanied by her sketches and notes. Belkis died at the age of thirty-two, leaving behind these essential works for the history of contemporary printmaking. The keys to her death remain a painful mystery for the international artistic community, which observed with admiration her successful rise to the most demanding circuits of art in the nineties. Religion and the Abakuá Secret Society, thematic sources of her work, are spaces created by men and only for men. They stigmatize and segregate women and, in turn, maintain strict discipline and maintain unassailable ethics and mystery. Belkis penetrated the space of the rite as far as she was allowed, and studied all the sources of information at her reach. As a result, she created a breathtaking iconography and interpreted the religious myth from her position as an artist, woman, black, and Latina in the late 20th century. According to the curator of the exhibition: "There is no doubt that Belkis used this theme to build a universal discourse against marginalization, frustration, fear, censorship, impotence and in favor of the search for freedom ..." Written by: Cristina Vives. Curator.

Confessions Belkis Ayon February 11, 1991 Some time ago I studied some of the components of our culture, on the African side, the carabalíes and of them the Abakuá Secret Society, made up only of men, a mutual aid and relief society, self-financed by its members. It resurfaces in the 30s of the 19th century in Cuba under other conditions and objectives very different from those of its African ancestors. There are people who feel and have the need to believe in something, which is inherent to human existence and one of those many examples is the following ... that even after so many years initiation ceremonies are held, promotion of obones or creation of new powers; crying or nlloro (funeral ceremony for the death of a member of society); that of refreshing the sacred pieces of the liturgy; as well as the assemblies of squares or the general assemblies; that are still carried out mainly in Havana and Matanzas, exclusively in Cuba. "To be a man you do not have to be an Abakuá but, to be an Abakuá you have to be a man", society does not come to seek prestige but to give it prestige, the best of itself. "There were women in Calabar who played like men in their power (...) and when the ceremonies began, in the mountains, in a cave on the banks of a lagoon, the men stole their secret ..." "Ekue hates women females. The secret is absolutely for MEN ... "(1) By addressing this unknown and hermetic theme for many, not being popular as another component of the Cuban cultural heritage for dealing with certain aspects that have not yet been clarified, I intend above all to make my vision known from its interwoven overflowing sacred memories religious imagination, presenting them in a synthetic way the aesthetic, plastic and poetic aspect that I have discovered in Abakuá (...) "transferring a complex message that despite its conceptual dimension is never direct but allusive ..." (2), going back many times to its origins in Africa. The antecedents of this secret society must be looked for well past in time because they arose in very primitive economic-social formations where man faced the unknown countless times, always seeking a satisfactory answer to the natural and social phenomena that surrounded him. that in my engravings you will be able to observe an infinity of points that coincide with the cultural fact itself, verifiable both in the field of ideas and in visual references. The antecedents of the ñañigos were back in Africa the Secret Societies Ngbe and Ekpe whose names in ekoi and efik respectively mean leopard man. These associations, due to their cults and their great economic and ideological power, were spreading the leopard as a totemic animal whose ... "fraternity is established on a foot of perfect equality between a human group on one side and a group of things, generally animals and plants ..." from the other, as Frazer would deduce in Man, God, and Immortality, totemism, together with the other primitive religious forms (magic, fetishism, and animism) generally achieve sympathetic magic by law of similarity as a result, which they will permeate the life of primitive man, his thoughts and actions. These societies can be found in the area that was included in the so-called Oil Rivers, from the piers of the vast Niger Delta and the Cross River in present-day South Nigeria and part of Cameroon, in front of the Biafra Bay. When I begin to investigate this interesting and mysterious brotherhood, unique in Cuba in its sacred memories -by the way very tangled-I can select characters that in my view are the most important to convey what I want and will be presented in all my works as : the leopard man, designated and identified with him by the different positions and hierarchies of society, to Sikán, a woman who discovers the secret and is sacrificed so that it passes to men and does not disappear. Sikán dies in vain, the secret fades more and more; This consisted of a voice, UYO UYO ANFONO sacred voice produced by a fish discovered by her when she returned from the river, the fish was the reincarnation of the old king called Obón Tanzé, King of Efigueremo who at the same moment was the reincarnation of Abasí, GOD SUPREME. Many were the efforts and attempts, for the transmission of the sacred voice because each time it faded more. The last transmission was on the hide of a goat; There yes! There yes! There was ... "that peculiar, frighteningly adorable sound ..." (3), the voice that vibrates on the sacred EKUE drum. There are innumerable variations of popular imagery when recounting how the events that gave rise to this type of secret society happened and from them I show you my variations intertwining their signs with mine; I use colography turned into a medium with which I feel very identified since it adjusts to my way of doing and that for some years I have been working, offering very peculiar visual information with effects and results that in a certain way harmonize with the subject. In addition to the possibilities that it presents in its multiple nature, which as it is generally defined, is the printing of a collage with a wide variety of materials which are glued on a cardboard support. Referring to the use of color there was a stage that I worked with a great variety of them and at that moment I was very satisfied, but over time I began to feel a certain nostalgia for black, I recognized that I was strongly united making me return to it. According to the materials that I use, he gives me a whole range of whites, grays and blacks, conceiving him as a great ally of the type of figuration I work with, with his composition ... all so hermetic, secret and mysterious in addition to the strength that he transmits to us. I think that these engravings could be a spiritual testimony if you will, not lived in my own flesh, but imagined, where I placed in the foreground an equivalent of the human figure, on which my ideas ultimately and consequently turn, which are memories of the memory materialized as a kind of crush that when the light is turned off and on, new memories appear accompanied by a successful classmate, intuition. I consider that there is a very close relationship between the vision that I offer you and that of the Abakuá Secret Society clearly transmitted in the work of Lydia Cabrera: … "By the knowledge and power of the signs, it makes the past present, recreates the hill, the river, the palm tree, in the sacred places of Awána Bekúra Mendó." Belkis Ayon / 91 NOTES: (1) CABRERA, Lidia. The Abakuá Secret Society narrated by old followers. Havana, Editions CR, 1958 (2) MOSQUERA, Gerardo. Essay on America. Juan Francisco Elso. March 1986 (3) CABRERA, Lidia. The Abakuá Secret Society narrated by old followers. Havana, Editions CR, 1958 PREVIOUS ARTICLE BACK TO TEXTS

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS 1983 II National Salon of Plastic Arts. Middle Level Schools. Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba. . 1986 VII Biennial of San Juan of Latin American and Caribbean Engraving [November 19/1986 February 28/1987]. Arsenal de la Marina, San Juan, Puerto Rico. . 1987 La Joven Estampa Award. Haydeé Santamaría Gallery, Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba. . Encounter of Engraving 87. National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba. . III International Exhibition of Engraving, New Delhi, India. . . 1988 Malerei und Grafik aus Kuba [January-February]. Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock, GDR Cuban Art in Boston [May 9-23]. Massachusetts College of Art, Administration Building, Boston, MA., United States. 3rd Hall of Awardees [May]. National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, CUBA. First Exhibition of Cuban Graphics in Guadalajara [July 7]. Cabañas Cultural Institute, Museum Area, rooms 127 130, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. VIII Biennial of San Juan of Latin American and Caribbean Engraving [September 30-December 30]. Arsenal de la Marina, San Juan, Puerto Rico. II Latin American Biennial of Graphic Arts. Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art (MOCHA), NY, United States. . . 1989 Tribute (collateral to the Third Havana Biennial) [November]. Alamar Art Center, East Havana, Havana, Cuba. The 15th International Independent Exhibition of Prints in Kanagawa'89 [November 23-December 10]. Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan. . 1990 Intergrafik'90 [April 17-May 27]. Berlin, GDR 6th International Biennial Exhibition of Portrait, Drawings and Graphic. Tuzla 90 [July 31-October 31]. The Yugoslav Portrait Gallery, Tuzla, Yugoslavia. La Joven Estampa Award [October 13?]. Haydeé Santamaría Gallery, Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba. [November 22-December 9]. Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan. Young Cuban Recorders. Nucleus of Contemporary Art, Joao Pessoa, Paraiba / Museu Assis Chatebriant, Campina Grande, Paraiba / Federal University Gallery, Rio Grande do Norte / Evasión Gallery, Sâo Paulo, Brazil. . . 1991 Seventh Triennale India 1991 [February 13-March 14]. Lalit Kala Gallery / Rabindra Bhavan / Bahawalpur House Complex, New Delhi, India. Challenge to colonization. Fourth Biennial of Havana [November 15-December 31]. National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba. Contemporary Cuban Engraving. Fourth Biennial of Havana [November]. Colonial Art Museum, Havana, Cuba. The Second Bharat Bhavan International Biennial of Prints [December 9-31]. Roopankar Museum of Fine Arts, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopa, India. . . 1992 Silk Screen Prints from René Portocarrero Serigraphy Workshop [January 15-February 14]. La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA., United States. Von dort aus: Kuba [March 12-May 31]. Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany. Africa in America [July 3-19]. Casa das Artes e da Historia, Vigo, Spain. The Cuban Round [July 4-August 31]. Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. X Mostra da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba / Mostra America, Afro America A. Spiritual Contribution X. Mostra da Gravura [Outubro 16-Dezembro 6]. Romário Martins House, Curitiba, Brazil. Young Recorders [October 16-December 6]. Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, Havana, Cuba. 20 Cuban Plastics [November 12-?]. University Artistic Center, National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina. The 17th International Independante Exhibition of Prints in Kanagawa'92 [November 19-December 6]. Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan. Art Festival, Shanghai, China. . 1993 La Joven Estampa Award [June August]. Haydeé Santamaría Gallery, Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba. 1st Internationale Grafiek Biennale [June 24-August 9]. Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Center (MECC), Maastricht, The Netherlands. Punti Cardinali dell'Arte. XLV Biennale di Venezia [Giugno-Ottobre]. Istituto Italo Latino Americano, Venezia, Italy. Empassant de Collectie [October 1-December 4]. Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. Encounter of Engraving '93 [October-November]. Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, Havana, Cuba. With their own hands [December / 1993-January / 1994]. Engraving Gallery, Experimental Graphic Workshop, Havana, Cuba. Five Creative Women. Palacio del Segundo Cabo, Havana, Cuba. Graphica Creativa 93. The 7th International Print Triennial. Alvar Aalto Museum, Finland. . 1994 La Jeune Peinture Cubaine [Janvier 18-Février 11]. Maison de la Culture du Lametin, Fort de France, Martinique, France. Arte do momento [February 28-March 6]. Gessy Lever Social Center, Valinhos, Brazil. Art of the moment [Março 11-18]. Biblioteca da FURB, Blumenau, Brazil. Art of the moment [Março 23-29]. Auditorio Alceu Amoroso Lima, Brazil. Art of the moment [April 11-16]. Latin American Gallery, House of the Americas, Havana, Cuba. Vindication of the Engraving [March 24-?]. La Acacia Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Cuban Art of Today / Art Cubain Actuel [Avril 14-Mai 7]. Galerie de L'UQAM, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada. A gap between heaven and earth. Fifth Biennial of Havana [May July]. Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, Havana, Cuba. Cuban Art. The Last Sixty Years [October 15-December 31]. Panamerican Art Gallery, Dallas, TX., United States. The Shapes of the Earth [February-March]. Buades Gallery, Madrid, Spain. Kunst aus Kuba [March-April]. Museum Bavaria, Zürich, Switzerland. One of Each Class. Ludwig de Cuba Foundation [March 26-?]. Center for Conservation, Restoration and Museology (CENCREM), Havana, Cuba. [Video catalog] International Exhibition of Contemporary Art of Non-Aligned Countries [April 28-June 30]. National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia. Kuba Kunst Heute. Grafiksammlug Schreiner [July]. Stadtgalerie Bamberg, Villa Dessauer, Bamberg, Germany. Made in Cuba [July August]. «Luis Miró Quesada» room. Cultural Center of the Municipality of Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Art of the Moment II. Cuba Mexico Brazil [July-August]. Espuela de Plata Gallery, Center for the Development of Visual Arts, Havana, CUBA. / [October]. Michoacan Institute of Culture, Michoacán, Morelia, Mexico. Cuban Mystic. Arte dell'ultima generazione [October 18-November 5]. Openspace, Palazzo dell'Arengario / [Ottobre 18-29]. Spazio Vigentina, Milano, Italy. . nineteen ninety five Current Cuban Plastic [October 24/1995 February 3/1996]. Fotocentre (Gallery of the Union of Journalists of Russia), Moscow, Russia / [1996]. Embassy of the Republic of Cuba, Beijing, China. . XI Mostra da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba [Outubro 31 December 29]. Fundaçao Cultural de Curitiba, Curitiba, Brazil. Contemporary Cuban Painting. Cuban Afro-Caribbean Painting Show [November 7-?]. Veracruzano Institute of Culture, Veracruz / [November 23-?]. "Ramón Alva de la Canal" University Gallery, Veracruzana University, Veracruz / [December 6-?]. Cabildos Room, CD. Mendoza, Veracruz / [December 18-24]. Town Hall, Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico. Estampa Edition 95. International Exhibition of Engraving and Contemporary Art Editors [November 7-12]. Superior Room of the Old Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art, Madrid, Spain. 1st. Contemporary Cuban Art Salon [November 15/1995 January 15/1996]. National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba. Warehouse Gallery, Lee, MA., United States. Alex Rosenberg Fine Art, NY, United States. . Women Beyond Borders [1995]. Wifredo Lam Center, Havana, CUBA. / [nineteen ninety five]. Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA., UNITED STATES. / [nineteen ninety six]. ICC Contemporary Gallery, Jerusalem, ISRAEL / [1996]. Kunstlerhaus, Graz, AUSTRIA / [August 7/1998]. Wifredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba. . nineteen ninety six Dream World. Young Cuban Plastic [February-March]. House of America, Madrid, Spain. Zonder Woorden [March]. Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. Arte do Momento. Encontre Latino Americano de Artes [Março]. Pavilhâo Antonio Palácio Neto, Mons. Bruno Nardini Municipal Park, Valinhos, Brazil. Cuba 20th century. Modernity and Syncretism [April 16 June 9] Atlantic Center of Modern Art, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria / [July 2 September 1]. La Caixa Foundation, Palma de Mayorca / [October 8 November 17]. Center d'Art Santa Mónica, Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Skulpturen und Grafische Werke aus Kuba [September 25-November 2]. Museum Leuengasse, Zürich, Switzerland. The budding womb. Contemporary Cuban Graphic Art Show [November-December]. Exhibition Hall, Faculty of Arts, University of Antioquia, Colombia. . Transgressing the Limits / Today as Yesterday. The Multiple Footprint. Collective Exhibition of Contemporary Engraving [December / 1996 January / 1997]. Visual Arts Development Center, Havana, Cuba. . 1997 ARCO'97 International Contemporary Art Fair [February 13-18]. Juan Carlos I Fair Park, Madrid, Spain. Represented by Galería Habana, Havana, Cuba. Pervasive Referents. Belkis Ayón, Attila Richard Lukacs, Elsa María Mora, Manuel Ocampo [April 19-May 31]. Phyllis Kind Gallery, NY, United States. '97 Kwangju Biennale. Unmapping the Earth. Speed. Hybrid. Power. Becoming [September 1-November 27]. Art Museum. Kwangju, South Korea. Take part in the «Hybrid» section. Polychrome of black. Contemporary Cuban art [September 11-?]. Quintana Monterde. Contemporary Art, Mexico, DF, Mexico. Encounter of Engraving'97 [November]. Visual Arts Development Center, Havana, Cuba. . . 1998 Comment peut-on être cubain? [Février 10-Mars 12]. Maison de L'Amérique Latine, Paris / [Juliet]. Counvent des Minimes, Perpignan, France. XII Biennial of San Juan of Latin American and Caribbean Engraving [April 30-September 30]. Arsenal de la Marina, Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, San Juan, Puerto Rico. ART BA'98. 7th Art Galleries Fair [May 15-24]. General San Martín Municipal Exhibition Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Contemporary Art of Cuba [June 2-July 5]. Urasoe Museum, Okinawa / [July 18-August 2]. Hillside Forum Daikanyama, Tokyo / [December 1-7]. Iwaki City Cultural Hall, Iwaki, Japan. Contemporary Art From Cuba: Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island [September 26-December 13/1998] Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ./[January 15-May 2/1999] Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA./[June 5-August 15/1999]. Canbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan / [September 4-November 7/1999]. Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX. / [February 11-April 23/2000]. Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan / [May 19-September 10/2000]. Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA, / [October 10-December 10/2000]. University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA./[January 13-March 18/2001]. Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS./[May 11-July 14/2001]. University of South Florida, Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa Bay, FL., United States. Creole Kongo. Artists in Crossroads. Boricua Gallery Workshop [October 23-November 20], NY, United States. Estampa Edition 98. International Exhibition of Engraving and Contemporary Art Editors [November]. Fairground of Casa Campo, Madrid, Spain. . 1999 La Huella Múltiple 1999. Center for the Development of Visual Arts / Center for Conservation, Restoration and Museology (CENCREM), [January 15-February 13], Havana, Cuba. The 4th Kochi International Triennial Exhibition of Prints [March 12-]. Kochi, Japan. Afro-Cuban Contemporary Graphic Art. Roca, Miranda, Torres and Manso [April 7-August 13]. The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, United States. Working for English [May 14-June 27]. Concourse Gallery, Ground Floor and Stalls, Barbican Center, London, UK Rituals Contemporary Room [May-June]. House of the Americas, Havana, Cuba. International Fair of Modern and Contemporary Art [September 16-20]. Carrousel del Louvre, Paris, France. Kunst-Welten im Dialog [November 5/1999-March 5/2000]. Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany. Cuban art. Beyond paper [December 3-1999-January-2000]. Conde Duque Cultural Center, Madrid, Spain. Gallery Gan, Tokyo, Japan, 1997 Casa América, Madrid, Spain, 1996 Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, 1992

AJIACO: STIRRINGS OF THE CUBAN SOUL Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut, United States September 12, 2009 - February 21, 2010 In 1939 Fernando Ortiz first characterized Cuban culture as Ajiaco : a rich stew consisting of a large variety of ingredients cooked until a thick broth is formed. It is this synthesis of the essence of Cuban art. It embraces and visualizes the very nature of the Cuban soul and reveals the depth of its expression. This is the subject of Ajiaco: Stirrings of the Cuban soul. The art incorporates the tales of the Orisha of Africa, the calligraphy of the Tao Te Ching, and the rituals of indigenous peoples. The formats change, the materials vary, but the syncretist mix remains constant in Cuban and Cuban American art. The stew becomes thicker as the syncretism evolves into a Post Modern discourse. In the contemporary artworks, the artist has felt motivated, by necessity, to appropriate from history and everyday life. We find in the art an amalgam of forms and images ranging from Pop culture to the Byzantine, and high art to low art, using found materials and precious objects. The curator writes, "Isolated and yet educated, restricted and yet heralded, the Cuban artist embodies the angst of their situation and yet embraces the loftiest of goals. Their syncretist tradition and heritage allow them to go beyond the monotheistic traditions in order to find the origins of their soul, the geist or inner spirit of their art. " Gail Gelburd, Ph. D., curator of this project, has been conducting research on Cuban art and artists for over 15 years. She has regularly traveled to Cuba and has lectured for the Havana Biennale, Havana University, and in the Casa Africa in Cuba. She has also lectured about the intersection of art, politics, and spirituality in Taiwan, Korea, South Africa, Australia, England, and Wales, and at such major institutions as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and for Williams College and the Chicago Art Institute. Gelburd has received numerous grants and awards, including a Rockefeller Foundation grant to conduct research on Cuban art, and is publishing a book on Contemporary Cuban art. The article "Beyond the Hype: Cuban art" appeared in Reconstruction: Issues in Contemporary Culture in Winter 2008 and another article "Cuba: The Art of Trading with the Enemy" appears in Art Journal in Spring 2009. Participating artists: Alejandro Aguilera, Belkis Ayón, Luis Cruz Azaceta, José Bedia, Juan Boza, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Nelson Domínguez, Juan Francisco Elso, Carlos Estévez, Flora Fong, Joel Jover, Wifredo Lam, Laura Luna, Ana Mendieta, Manuel Mendive, Clara Morera, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Sandra Ramos, Lázaro Saavedra, Tomas Sánchez, Esterio Segura, Cepp Selgas, Leandro Soto, Elio Vilva.

Nkame Mafimba. Belkis Ayón Additional Texts Resume

CRITIQUE Remembering Belkis Ayón, on the 10th anniversary of his physical disappearance. Isbel Alba . February 4, 2015 A date not to forget: In the collective imagination, September 11 has become a date of loss and pain after the terrorist attacks perpetrated against the Twin Towers, in New York, in 2001. However, today, I am going to highlight another item , perhaps more intimate because it is ours, perhaps more questionable because it was caused by our own design, leaving us incognito and the terrible feeling that accompanies certain misunderstood, bitter gestures. It is about the Cuban artist Belkis Ayón Manso (1967-1999) ... READ MORE Belkis Ayón. Preamble to an infinite journey to earth Norberto Marrero . December 1, 1999 For us, weary of the tumult and bad nights, arriving in Alamar (land of promise) meant, among other things, being able to verify that there was still a full place, devoid of hatred and betrayal; a castle where we could exercise ourselves in the greatest and clearest spiritual tranquility. Then Belkis would appear with her huge eyes of an Egyptian goddess, she ushered us in, and no one dared to let go of her spirit anymore, and we stayed hanging comfortably by her smile, her contagious optimism ... READ MORE The respectful arbitrariness of Belkis Ayón Orlando Hernandez . February 19, 1992 It does not seem unusual to me that it is a woman. Make it a woman again. That this woman is now called Belkis (and not Sikán or Sikanekue) does not change things at all. Nor that the setting, the time, the details turn out to be something different. The story is the same again. To be repeated. Unceasingly. As in the beginning of the myth, it is necessary for a woman to appear again. The same? Other? Perhaps it is indifferent. Every religious knows ... READ MORE

Belkis Ayón. The preamble to an infinite journey to earth. Norberto Marrero December 1, 1999 © Extramuros, 1, December 1999, pp. 25-26 For us, weary of the tumult and bad nights, reaching Alamar (land of promise) meant, among other things, being able to verify that there was still a full place, devoid of hatred and betrayal; a castle where we could exercise ourselves in the greatest and clearest spiritual tranquility. Then Belkis would appear with her enormous eyes of an Egyptian goddess, she ushered us in, and no one dared to let go of her spirit anymore, and we would be left hanging comfortably by her smile, her contagious optimism. I see Belkis as that mysteriously invulnerable woman, ready to offer us the best spaghetti in Havana and the clearest beer, capable of satiating the appetite, thirst and fatigue of the most demanding traveler; I see her there with her kind and enthusiastic face, giving each of us a torrent of affection and vitality. When I met her in San Alejandro, I was just another student in the evening course with an avid interest in printmaking. She was already the artist that everyone admired, a teacher of two groups of students in the day course, quite numerous. With somewhat excessive persistence, in which I silently slipped away among her disciples and patiently waited for each moment of respite to ask her any technical or conceptual concerns, to which she responded without the slightest qualm, without the slightest suspicion. At the end of my four years of studies we had become very good friends, and by chance, almost always unpredictable, she ended up being the opponent of my thesis. I remember her as one of those essential teachers, very concerned for her students from San Alejandro, to whom she gave all her knowledge about engraving, including very expensive materials that she managed to buy on her travels, or others that were donated to her by foreign friends; catalogs and all kinds of information that he managed to collect. For a long time the Chair of Engraving of Saint Alexander survived thanks to his unrelenting interest. She was the irreplaceable friend, and I can't stop thinking about her eyes, with her always encouraging words. For Cuban culture, an impeccable work will remain, overflowing with perfection and constancy, of exquisite elegance. A path opened by someone who dedicated a large part of his days to promoting Cuban engraving in a special way, with unquestionable seriousness and professionalism. For Cuban culture, it is the gross and useless loss of an artist who with her scarce thirty-two years managed to climb the highest levels of national and international culture in the plastic arts, with an astonishingly mature work, of great originality and spiritual depth. . For those of us who loved her, for those of us who were by her side, something more intimate, more imperishable, will remain. We will be left with his goodness, his disinterested way of giving himself, his concern for everything that meant the well-being of his family and his friends, which was the same; his desire to always achieve a fair and happy future for artists and friends. I remember now when he received one of the prizes from the Puerto Rico Engraving Biennial, one of the most important graphic arts events on the continent. It was a moderately happy surprise for her; I could assure you that he received it with a certain amount of modesty. However, I very well remember her inordinate joy and pride when Abel (1) visited La Huella Múltiple, and with her he toured each of the exhibition halls, which he had appreciated in their exceptional quality. I looked at his eyes and could perceive endless wonderful thoughts, plans for engraving, opportunities never latent before as up to that moment, and then we remembered all the difficulties to carry out the event, the early mornings of work at the UNEAC putting together the catalogs, the money that was not enough and that much of it came from his pocket; the difficulty of assembling many of the pieces, the fatigue, the sleep, and although we always had the conviction that La Huella ... would cost us a lot, now, while we talked about Abel and all that, we knew deep inside that the effort would not it had been in vain. Her work as Vice President of Plastic Arts at UNEAC, for many of the engraving artists who knew her, was a saving dream; there was someone who gave engraving its true importance, such a laborious technique and so much tradition in Cuban culture. Belkis was not only a very responsible artist, but also was absolutely affordable for any artist, not only for the most important, but also, since they paid special attention, to those less known, less "privileged". He had a special agglutinating capacity, thanks to which he carried out any event, counting not only on the engravers, but also on the sculptors, the photographers ... To all this he gave himself with absolute devotion, leaving aside, even, his own work of creation. Today, while making the same trip that I did so many times, I think about the time that Eliseo left us (2), and I cannot conceive of including Belkis in that immaterial, insubstantial time; I try to understand their essences, their latitudes, and I cannot manage their body and spirit through those labyrinths. For some it is the unspoken and irreversible end. For others it is one of her many trips, one of which inexplicably sometimes she returned very depressed, even having done very well professionally. For me it is neither one nor the other. I still know that he will be there, in his castle (and ours), waiting for the first traveler, thirsty, spreading his arms. I know this is absolutely true and I don't want to be fooled. We share too many joys, too many sorrows, too many truths, and although for all this means a selfish and terribly devastating loss, we will try to be calm. I wonder about the things that we did not say to each other, because of how dark no one perceived, about the things that we did not understand, and then I think: How else would I see suicide, if not as a prelude of a fervent banquet, and tell each other why it would be worth very little to strip ourselves of our sardonic sorcery as if all our anguish ended there, where the water runs transparent and the salt shines like gold vomited by a goat. How else would we see emptiness. One and the other are voracious objects that our exhausted youth possesses, relic of a knowledge that is spent so inevitably like our children. Love accompanies bodies when they die. A fine line divides the stones and desire. Patience. Before the yew tree, patience. After the desserts, a slow and infinite patience. Then I arrive at the door of that wonderful castle. When it opens the door she appears, says "hello", and her huge eyes pull me, Apprehending me for all eternity (1) - Abel Prieto, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Cuba. (N. of the publisher) (2) - It refers to the Cuban poet Eliseo Diego and his poem "Testament", where he bequeaths to future generations "the time, all the time." (N. of the publisher) PREVIOUS article next article