The political tensions and disagreements existing for more than fifty years in the relations between Cuba and the United States have had a significant impact on the cultural universe. The effects of the economic embargo and the social, migration, financial policies… that have marked the diplomacy between such nations show the breakups, ignorance and absence of reciprocity and exchanges that promote and nurture the artistic and cultural development between the two countries. A number of alternatives that have made feasible the rapprochement of the American public to the Cuban artistic production have emerged to face those limitations, now perhaps more attenuated from the recent dialogue and steps taken for a possible restoration of diplomatic relations between the two territories.
The initiative of Michelle Wojcik, who is founder and director of two spaces aimed at promoting Cuban works and artists living on the island, highlights in the scenario of the visual arts. With the name of Cuban Gallery, Wojcik created in Provincetown in 2007 and then in Boston in 2009, both in the state of Massachusetts, two sites that since then have the mission to make visible and promote circulation, through exhibitions, of the work of Cuban artists that otherwise the US public could not appreciate. These exhibitions also have a commercial purpose, which impacts on the formation of a market and collecting of works of Cuban art in the United States .
Michelle Wojcik travels to Cuba constantly looking for new artists, attracts collectors interested in Cuban art and manages exhibitions of our artists for the Cuban Gallery. In this sense, many creators of our country from different generations, with different trainings (graduates of ISA, San Alejandro, provincial art schools, self-taught), with stylistic lines (neo-expressionism, naïve, bad painting aesthetics and pop, etc), techniques and varied thematic interests, are in the list displayed by this institution. The names that have participated in the Cuban Gallery include: Pedro Pablo Oliva, Fine Arts National Award winner, Eduardo Guerra, Dairan Fernández de la Fuente, Luis Eliades Rodríguez, Sandra Dooley, Pablo Bordón, Edel Bordón, Aneet R. Fontes, Juan Carlos Vázquez Lima, Yamile Pardo, Luis Rodríguez NOA, Yunayka Martin Martínez and others.
The Cuban Gallery is a space for insertion of our artists abroad and a possible way to strengthen cultural relations between the two countries. The work of its director, Michelle Wojcik, and the actions taken by this worthy initiative allow blurring the boundaries and getting distances closer; one more alternative for Cuban culture and art to be appreciated beyond their borders.
