In our context there are a great many initiatives and projects of galleries that are created to promote and market the most recent Cuban art. It is increasingly more common that exhibition events coincide in the well-known galleries of the capital as well as in the studios and alternative spaces that seek to attract the public, the critics, the curators and specialists on the subject. A very profitable competition and of incalculable benefits for the young people that today are trying to manage their individual initiatives. Outside of Cuba the artists also have known how to play their trump cards and have been able to arouse the interest of gallery owners who are placing their bets on them overseas, be it as part of a representation staff, alternating their works through different collective displays or representing them in art fairs.
(…) New York City is getting ready to welcome from March 21 to 25 the 25th edition of Affordable Art Fair NYC Spring 2018. For the occasion, (…) the Metropolitan Pavilion will open its doors to more than 70 national and international exhibitors, who in turn will represent more than 300 contemporary artists. The search for unknown names and the interest in echoing the most recent productions of internationally renowned artists, are motivations that are news in recent days in the golden city. The fair still hasn’t opened its doors to the public, but on a virtual tour I make a stop at a link (…) I continue the search and four names that I recognize appear: Kenia Arguiñao (Cienfuegos, Cuba, 1983); Roldán Lauzán (San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, 1987); Andy Llanes (San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, 1987) and Carlos González (Havana, Cuba, 1954). Four Cuban artists, represented by JCamejo Art in Affordable Art Fair NYC Spring 2018, and I come to the conclusion that yes, of course, Cuban art continues seeking spaces to make itself known.
(…) During the 25th edition of Affordable Art Fair NYC Spring 2018 the most recent productions of artists Kenia Arguiñao, Roldán Lauzán, Andy Llanes and Carlos González will be on display in Stand 2.2. Painting, drawing and sculpture coexist in a pressing museology that consolidates and interlinks their individual poetics. A group of works of large and medium-size format make up the square meters of JCamejo Art’s Stand. The visual impact they provoked is irrefutable, based on the use of metal in its three-dimensional expansion, the application of gold powder between foreshortenings and facial features, the tessitura of the drawing in an attempt to reinvent dreams, the dramatic expressions of introspective faces that do not vacillate in scrutinizing the spectator.
From its heterogeneity a sensation of flight as a concept of communion between the works that breathe in unison is perceptible. (…) Four different conceptions of what producing Cuban art means, minimizing the categorizing and the imaginary borders with the skill of someone who knows how to take advantage of time. The JCamejo Art initiative will be solidified as years go by and it is that its principal contribution is not the visibility it gives the artists, it is the rigor with which it bets on solid and plural works, pieces that in any scenario can compete or emulate with their fellow men and women. Contemporary art needs to transcend, to wage the battle against commercial exploitation, overcome the mere amateur collecting to go beyond the aesthetics of globalization. JCamejo Art points toward the exacerbation of an art that is young, fresh, suggesting and preferably Cuban, Latin American…. It is too soon to choose, but at least spring is already here!
