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Ways of Worldmaking—Notes on a Passion for Collecting

Selected Work from the Dr. Arturo & Liza Mosquera Collection of Contemporary ArtCurated by DUO NOSTI

On View Oct 8—Nov 7, 2010The Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College600 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami

Nostalgia is the enemy of exile, one of whose essential duties is the perpetuation of a cultural process and not the rebuilding of memories. The past is compass and reflection, and neither model nor destination, and the dutiful exile understands that the perpetuated process is always an adaptation to new habitats and circumstances. But it is the will to perpetuate, and to see the past as a preface, which bestows humility on those chosen to carry the citizenship papers of irreparable displacement. The diasporic self often excels in alignment and coexistence, but knows and is known for a passion for insularity amid the exercise of unreflected belonging. The habit of collecting can easily become a personal-ity orientation under the conditions of dutiful exile. The collector in a stable, prosperous, even hegemonic society—and who fully identifies with this state of affairs—is one of the harvesters of power, a gardener of status. It is an important role, for collecting by the champions among the natives links wealth and leisure to reverence for creativity and often illuminates the uninitiated at large into the evolving language of cultural innovation. The native collector in such a pinnacle society, then, is a silent critic, a tacit curator, the shepherd of tastes who can even, when capable of ex-cellence, become a prophet of aesthetic values. But the diasporic collector, tome-spined and like an open book halved between the narrative of participation in the society of residence and the facing-page script of inherited indebtedness which claims him, has other aspirations, hence other markers by which to measure his success or failure.

The markers are shaped by two sets of standards: that of epic consciousness on the one hand, and of cultural simultaneity on the other. Dr. Arturo Mosquera and his wife Liza have staked out a unique place in South Florida’s ecosystem of art and collect-ing, precisely because they recognize and embrace the diasporic nature of their task as collectors. Of course, acquiring art and living with it is a source of pleasure, and if done with cunning and knowledge, can certainly bring material rewards as well—in the accrued value of works, to say nothing of notoriety, even glamour. And social prominence, generically derided by intellectual snobs

as vanity, can actually be an important designator of confidence in oneself and, more importantly, one’s embededness in history and mission. There are no private societies; they are all the fruits of projection. The truly elitist, hence oppressive, society is the one whose values are imposed by those who cannot succeed in open competition but only in the underground of resentful illumina-tion. As a sign of contributory prominence and social leadership, the Mosquera’s have done more than purchase large quantities of works of art, which they began to do in earnest in 1989. Since 1998, Mosquera Orthodontics has been a showcase of contempo-rary art, exposing patients and their family members to art in an unabashed yet friendly manner. The Art@Work project, which Dr. Mosquera began in December 2000, invites contemporary artists to use the waiting area of his practice to display works in varied genres and formats. In May 2007, next door to his practice which is located in the heart of Westchester—one of Miami’s quintes-sentially Cuban middle-class neighborhoods—the Mosquera’s launched Farside Gallery, a sui generis alternative space, where worthy international artists often overlooked by the distant Wyn-wood scene and the art fairs get serious attention.

I have been privileged to see the growth of Arturo and Liza’s col-lection over the last two decades. Arturo and I attended Belén Jesuit Preparatory School, graduating in 1971, and then embarking on separate career paths. We reconnected in 1988 when he began to become seriously interested in the arts. After a lengthy initial stage in which I proffered guidance on what might make some-thing art, or not, Arturo did what any genuine individual on a self-directed path does: he ventured on his own, eventually construct-ing a cultural project that reflects his taste, vision, and sense of history. But the Mosquera’s collection has remained linked to the diasporic forces which made it the product of a spiritual necessity more than a desired prize. In sheer numbers and variety, I doubt there is a private collection in Miami which has the sustained qual-ity and range of works by contemporary Cuban and Cuban-Amer-ican artists in every medium. The Cuban segment of the collec-tion, while perhaps the most extensive, is part of a broader project

On Wheels of Fire—The Mosquera Collection at the Freedom Tower

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where works by North and Latin American artists proliferate.

Taken in its entirety, the Mosquera’s collection is a multifaceted success story linked to Miami’s only true, if usually ignored, epic. The first bihemispheric city where cross-sections of diverse cultures mingle, and sometimes clash, as equals, Miami has hewn for itself an identity for which there is no pre-existing model. That, in itself, unsettles the smug provincials who have called the shots here in the media and cultural institutions for half a cen-tury. Where else has a dialogical assimilation emerged with such potential for generating true cultural innovation and that is not modeled on hand-me-down Manhattan trends or, worse, globalist uniformity? Alas, it is a distinction which is perishing on the vine, pummeled by the flu-season cosmopolitanism of Basel-mania, the unrelenting lack of a lively critical platform in the local media, and a lackluster academic world. Amid the din of a city still filled with promises it can’t keep track of, let alone keep, the Mosquera’s are the in-house outsiders whose flair and passion make it difficult for the faux-sophisticates to dismiss. Like Maria Brito’s Self-Portrait (1989), the Mosquera’s Collection has rolled through the fires of history and now carries them upon itself, the crucible that becomes a beacon, the survivor who becomes the attendant of the ritual flame. Here they are with a brilliant sampling of their collection at the Freedom Tower, where refugee and native histo-ries mate like ghosts that forgot they were ghosts, armored in the works of an indefatigable culture, helping it also become a part of the common heritage of their adopted homeland.

—Ricardo Pau-Llosa

Hay coleccionistas de arte y luego también coleccionistas que son tan originales como las obras que han adquirido. Uno de ellos es el Dr. Arturo F. Mosquera – ortodoncista, coleccionista y defensor de los derechos humanos en el mundo.

Pasar un tiempo con el Dr. Mosquera en su hogar de Coral Gables, Florida, mientras se discute sobre arte y la colección que él y su esposa, Liza, han acumulado durante los últimos 20 años, es como pasar el tiempo en un estudio cinematográfico de un gran maestro como Fellini – es mágico, extravagante y dinámico, todo a la vez. Cuando se penetra en el círculo mágico de su exhuberancia, encanto y incredible conocimiento sobre arte…prepárese para atravesarlo y no permanecer igual.

Por un breve espacio de tiempo, cuando se encuentra usted en su órbita se llega al mundo interior del artista, que él alimenta con auténtico interés, haciéndoles pasar a sus oficinas a cualquier hora del día, discutiendo sus más recientes exhibiciones o las futuras en perspectiva, mientras ellos disfrutan de su característico sentido del humor y de su calor humano, apoyándolos así en todas las areas de sus vidas. Para ellos, él no es solo un coleccionista, sino más bien un muy querido amigo a quien siempre pueden acudir para cualquier consejo que puedan necesitar, ya sea profesional o personal. El los atiende como lo haría un padre con sus hijos, tratándose en este caso, de un magnífico grupo de artistas que él considera talentosos, sensi-tivos y perceptivos, que resultan fascinantes en su proceso intelectual y creativo, y en grado sumo por su creatividad artística que cruzan el umbral de su tiempo y su lugar en la historia, convirtiéndoles en nuestros modernos visionarios.

Observarlo en su trabajo, cambiando aspectos de su persona tan fácilmente como un director planea un estudio cinematográfico es realmente fascinante. El es el impecable profesional ortodoncista que ha recibido muchos honores y distinciones en su profesión. Es el mé-dico que está involucrado y dedicado a sus pacientes, recibiéndoles siempre en su oficina con afabilidad y sinceridad y despidiéndoles con abrazos y buenos deseos. El es el serio y apasionado colec-

cionista que se encuentra intensamente involucrado en dar apoyo a los artistas que forman parte de su colección mientras sigue en la búsqueda de otros artistas que podrían también ser parte de ella. El es el inquisitivo investigador intellectual que busca sin cesar alimen-tar su voraz necesidad de obtener mayores conocimientos. El es el mundano viajero, el amigo de los críticos de arte y de los curadores y directores de museos. El detective a la busca de un talento que asoma pero que aún no ha sido reconocido. El innovador que decidió extender su colección de su casa a su oficina para exhibir su arte y ro-tarlo frecuentemente con el propósito de que aquellos pacientes que podrián no tener conexión con el mundo del arte o que no visitan museos o galerías frecuentemente, tuvieran la oportunidad de exper-imentar lo que él primero experimentó cuando comenzó a visitar la casa de su amigo, el poeta y crítico de arte Ricardo Pau Llosa y quedó admirado del tremendo enriquecimiento que el arte, que es vigoroso y de cierto nivel, puede ejercer sobre un individuo. Este es un regalo que él la facilita a sus pacientes y sus empleados diariamente. Uno de los artistas de su colección, Glexis Novoa, tras haber visto esta exten-sión, sugerió que así como las obras de la colección eran rotadas en su oficina podría también considerarse invitar artistas para exhibi-ciones. Esto comenzó hace una década y le llamaron Art@Work. En ocasiones se ocupa solamente la entrada de la oficina y en otras, el artista escoge intervenir en otras secciones de la clínica.

Recientemente, los Mosquera decidieron extender su espacio de exhibición a la casa adyacente a la oficina del Dr. Mosquera, que ellos remodelaron y abrieron como una galleria no commercial, Farside Gallery. La inauguración se realizó en Mayo del 2007 y su exposición principal fué la del gran pintor cubano, Eduardo Michael-son (tercera generación de pintores), a la que el destacado artista asistió y compartió con todos aquellos que vinieron de Nueva York, California y muchos otros lugares a rendir homenaje al Maestro. También se organizó en Diciembre del 2009, una exhibición muy bien recibida del maestro Guido Llinas, que incluyó conferencias y otras actividades para honrar a este importante y gran pintor. Desde entonces muchos han sido los artistas que han mostrado sus obras en Farside Gallery, desde el talentoso Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas,

Dr. Arturo F. Mosquera—El Arte de Coleccionar

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radicado en Nueva York, hasta muchos artistas locales e internacion-ales. Las exhibiciones de Michaelson y Llinas son solo dos ejemplos de su dedicación a honrar y recordar los grandes artistas que fueron tan lamentablemente erradicados de la versión cubana official de la Historia del Arte. Este infortunado y triste incidente afectó al grupo de los primeros artistas exiliados, entre ellos, Rafael Soriano, Agustín Fernandez, Guido Llinas, Jorge Camacho y Rolando Dirube. Estos artistas fueron simplemente borrados de la version official de la Historia del Arte en Cuba y como gusta de señalar el Dr. Mosquera, “la historía está hecha por los gobernantes.” La generación de artistas de los años ’80 que trabajaron en Cuba y asistiéron a las mejores instituciones de arte del país, tales como San Alejandro y el Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), no tenián conocimiento de la existencia de estos artistas aunque muchos ya eran, para entonces, internacional-mente reconocidos.

La generación de artistas cubanos de los años ’80, fueron los artistas entrenados durante la Revolución, que fueron identificados y traídos a estas escuelas especiales para ser entrenados como el grupo más talentosos de artistas que podían representar a Cuba. Muchos de ellos estaban muy descontentos con las circumstancas en la Isla, así es que la mayoría abandonó la patria. Muchos se fueron a México, algunos vinieron para los Estados Unidos y otros marcharon a España. Ellos tuvieron que rehacer sus vidas con gran dificultadad porque ya no se encontraban auspiciados por el gobierno para viajar a las exhibiciones de Bienales a través del mundo. Les costó bien caro abandoner la Isla y su régimen comunista pero para muchos era algo que tenían que llevar a cabo porque no podían continuar viviendo bajo ese sistema. Mosquera es también un hombre que siente gran nostalgia por su patria y profunda preocupación con la situación existente en Cuba en la actualidad.

Mosquera nació en Pinar del Río, Cuba en 1953. Su niñez la pasó visitando el estudio de su tío politico, el renombrado artista y paisa-jista, Tiburcio Lorenzo. Fué allí donde su inició su amor al arte. Le gustaban las composiciones y colores y podia relacionarse facilmente

con lo que representaban las pinturas porque pasaba mucho tiempo en el campo y disfrutaba montando a caballo por montañas o ríos del area. De joven, coleccionaba postalitas de beisbol y más tarde “muñequitos” que guardaba en un cofre. En los años ’60, coleccionó Marvel Comics. Esta tendencia al coleccionismo resurgiría posteri-ormente cuando comenzó a coleccionar arte. Su idílica vida familiar terminó abruptamente cuando abandonó el país con su familia más cercana el 10 de Marzo de 1962 y se encamino hacia Miami y la vida del exilio.

En Miami, su educación artística continuo en High-School en el Co-legio de Belén , donde preparó reportes para presentar en clase sobre artistas como Joseph William Turner y Claude Monet. Continuó estudiando arte a nivel universitario y cuando comenzó a viajar, visitó los museos alrededor del mundo, con un voraz interés de ver la mayor cantidad posible de arte.

Sus aventuras en coleccionar arte sucedieron accidentalmente cuando un colega suyo, sugirió que los dentistas podrían estar más involucrados en las artes y lo puso en contacto con una revista cuyo editor resultó ser su amigo de la infancia, Ricardo Pau Llosa. Ambos estudiarón juntos en Belén y fué Pau Llosa quien, en 1989, sugirió que él y Liza debían empezar a coleccionar. Pau Llosa ayudó a edu-car a ambos sobre los libros y artículos que deberían de leer, las con-ferencias a las que deberían de asistir y comenzó a llevarles a estudios de artistas y a recomendar las obras que deberían de adquirir.

La selección de los Mosquera, se basaba siempre en el arte que les atraía a ambos, y finalmente fueron los propios artistas y su amistad con ellos que los condujeron a una apreciación y entendimiento más profundo del arte de coleccionar.

Actualmente, la colección de los Mosquera está compuesta de más de mil piezas de obras de arte con una perspectiva internacional. Es una colección de gran diversidad e incluye una variedad de obras tales como, pintura, escultura, obras en papel, fotografías, video e instalaciones. En lo que respecta a los artistas cubanos, hay obras de

diferentes generaciones. La diversidad y alcance de las obras, parece una lista del “Quién es quien” entre los mejores y más destacados de los viejos maestros y de las voces más contemporáneas incluyendo a: Gay García, Paul Sierra, Jorge Camacho, Baruj Salinas, Maria Martín-ez-Cañas, José Bedia, Maria Brito, Ana Albertina Delgado, Adriano Buergo, Segundo Planes, Glexis Novoa, Liliam Cuenca, Gory, Jorge Pantoja, Luis Gispert, Consuelo Castañeda, Ruben Torres Llorca y muchos otros. Hay un pronunciado interés en el arte contemporá-neo, que el Dr. Mosquera encuentra “más provocativo e intelectual-mente estimulante” y explica que “las nuevas obras constituyen un mejor reflejo de lo que está sucediendo en la vida y el mundo.”

Mosquera se interesa y ha estado involucrado en muchos aspectos de dar apoyo a las voces de los disidentes en Cuba. El y su esposa, Liza, han demostrado su apoyo trabajando con diversas organizaciones tales como la Organización PUENTE de Jovenes Profesionales Cubano, Miami Medical Team, y han auspiciado libros que han sido escritos por disidentes y otras muchas actividades. Como cubano-americano se considera un exiliado que abandonó la Isla por razones políticas. El piensa que es desafortunado que muchos de los cubanos que abandonaron Cuba en años recientes sean considerados como emigrantes en busca de mejoras económicas, cuando la realidad de Cuba es una situación diferente, como lo evidencia la huelga de hambre de Guillermo Fariñas y la muerte del huelguista de hambre, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, o las demostraciones actuales de las Damas de Blanco, o mirando hacia atrás a la “Primavera Negra” del 2003, cuando el grupo de 75 periodistas y disidentes fueron encarcelados, o el balaceo y hundimiento del avión de los Hermanos al Rescate.

Sus sentimientos acerca de la realidad cubana constituyen una reconocida influencia en las obras que colecciona que representan un pronunciado contenido político y social. Mosquera piensa que el cambio en Cuba no vendrá del exterior sino de adentro de la isla. Individuos como Yoani Sánchez y las Damas de Blanco y otros disi-dentes como ellos, son los verdaderos héroes que están plantando las semillas del cambio.

En fin de cuentas, el arte se relaciona con la política como com-ponente social que critica la injusticia social. Como señaló el Dr. Mosquera, en una conferencia reciente a la que él asistió, uno de los artistas cubanos que forman parte de su colección (Rubén Torres Llora) mostró gran elocuencia cuando le interrogaron sobre el arte político en Cuba: “Primero que nada todo es político, y segundo, en Cuba todo es aún más político.”

Cuando se refiere al impacto del arte en la política y la sociedad, Mosquera menciona la gran obra “Guernica” de Pablo Picasso. “Es muy improbable que quien se haya parado frente a él o haya visto una representación de éste pueda negar su fuerza o el poder del arte para expresar lo que tiene significado social y político y para trans-mitir el sufrimiento de los eventos trágicos causados por la guerra,” nos explica.

Cuando le interrogamos qué clase de legado quisiera dejar con respecto a su colección, se toma un largo y meditativo momento y, con la característica inteligencia que irradia de su mirada, elige no responder. Sufrirá su colección la prueba del tiempo y perdurará en el futuro? Y dónde se mantendrá para informar y enseñar a otros? Quizá su ciudad en Pinar del Rio, quizá La Habana (como sugirió el gran Guido Llinas) o, quizá Miami, como sugieren muchos de los artistas de su colección.

Al final, será un legado digno de estudio y admiración el ver lo que un hombre con visión e integridad ha sido capaz de hacer por los artistas y por la historia del arte y, asimismo, por las generaciones futuras y su interpretación del arte Latino Americano, que a veces no es evaluado al mismo nivel que el arte Norteamericano y Eu-ropeo. Este es el legado de este hombre que marca sus pasos no por los caprichos de la moda o el valor commercial del arte, sino que lo lleva a cabo con el corazón y con autenticidad y con el ojo preciso de alguien que ama verdaderamente y cree en el poder del arte para cambiar al mundo.

—Vivian Nosti

Collection

ADRIANO BUERGO Adriano Buergo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1964 and obtained his U.S. citizenship in 1999. He graduated in arts from the San Alejandro National School of Fine Arts in Havana in 1983 and subsequently from the Higher Institute of Art, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a major in painting in 1988.

Together with four other artists, Adriano founded the art group Puré. Puré’s contribution to the Cuban aesthetic was the incor-poration of popular and social themes into the art world. He has participated in several collective exhibitions of the generation, known as Cuba’s Generation of the Eighties. Buergo has exhibited internationally in Latin America, The United States and Europe.

He is in the permanent collections of: The Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Museo Na-cional de Bellas Artes, Cuba and Peter Ludwig, Aachen Museum, Germany.

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AGUSTÍN FERNÁNDEZ Agustín Fernández was born in Havana, Cuba on April 16, 1928 and died in New York City on June 2, 2006. He is recognized as one of the outstanding Cuban artists of his generation. From his career beginnings in Havana through the many years that he spent outside Cuba, which were formative for the independent and international context that would mark his work, Fernández dedi-cated himself to the production of paintings, drawings, and graph-ics. Fernández also created assemblages, sculptures and artist’s books. Fernández’ work has been extensively and internationally exhibited in numerous prestigious public collections, and found a popular audience when it was featured in the 1980 Brian de Palma film, “Dressed to Kill”.

Today, his work is most recognizable for its ambiguous and pre-cariously balanced forms, erotic overtones, surreal juxtapositions and metallic palette. Inspired by the demands of survival in an urban environment and the mundane objects that clutter its alleys and streets, Fernández is the collector on a quest for the substance of creativity, complete with the armor of protection necessary to maneuver through time and place that becomes such an important source of his imagery. Paintings and objects are related and com-plementary and further complicate the identification of organic versus in-organic forms; human and machine; real and imagined; obsessive and cerebral. Throughout his long and prolific years as an artist, Agustín Fernández was respected as a dedicated profes-sional able to distinguish himself with a unique style and masterful techniques.

Fernández began his studies in Havana, Cuba, at the Escuela Elemental de Artes Aplicada Anexa a San Alejandro ( 1944-1946) and the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro (1946-1950). In 1948, he journeyed to New York for a summer course with George Grosz and Yasuo Kuiyoshi at the Art Student’s League before returning to Havana, where he studied philosophy and languages at the Universidad de la Habana (1948-1951). He later traveled to Madrid, Spain, where he audited courses at the Academia de San Fernando de Madrid (1953). In 1959, Fernán-dez was granted a scholarship to study painting in Europe by the Ministry of Education, General Cultural Division, Havana. From that point onward he remained abroad, residing in Paris, France, from 1959-1968; in San Juan , Puerto Rico from 1968-1972; and New York City from 1972 until his death.

By the time Fernández arrived in Europe at the age of thirty-one, in addition to a solo exhibitions at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Ca-racas, he has also had eleven one –man shows that presented his

work to audience in Havana, New York, Caracas, and Washington,D.C. During the next four decades Fernández went on to havemore than 30 solo exhibitions in important galleries, museums

and art fairs around the world. In 1992 the Art Museum, Florida International University organized a major retrospective of his work.

In the course of his career Fernández also participated in over 100 group shows throughout Europe, The United States and Latin America. The first of his more than 30 collective museum exhibi-tions was in 1958 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York ( where he showed again in 1966 and 1967) and the following year he was part of show held at The Art institute of Chicago. He also took part in a traveling exhibition and major resource publication, The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970, which was originated by The Bronx Museum of Art in New York and traveled to El Paso Museum of Art in El Paso, Texas, The San Diego Museum of Arts in California, El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña in San Juan and the Center for the Arts in Vero Beach, Florida.

Fernández was also included in important gallery projects in-cluding Tanguy Dali Bellmer Fernandez Roy at Galerie Andre Francois Petit in Paris ( 1966) and Latin America : New Paintings and Sculpture ( Juan Downey, Agustin Fernandez, Gego, Gabriel Morera) and at Center for Inter- American Relations in New York ( 1969). More recently , his work was included in exhibitions, The Coincident Eye: Hans Bellmer, Agustín Fernández, Robert Map-plethorpe, (1997) and In Context: Hans Bellmer, Victo Brauner, Joseph Cornell, Agustín Fernández, Wifredo Lam, Robert Matta, Carlos Merida ( 1998), both by 123 Watts Gallery in New York as well as Cundo Bermudez, Agustín Fernández Emilio Sanchez at ACA galleries, New York (2004).

Fernández was the recipient of numerous honors. He was awarded a Cintas Foundation Fellowship in 1978. The artist was selected to create a permanent public ceramic mural at the Colegio de Arqui-tectos in Havana (1957). He was selected to participate in the VII Salon National de Pintura y Escultura, Museo de Bellas Artes, Ha-vana (1956); The Bienel do Museo Arte Moderno de Sao Paulo, (1957- Honorable Mention, 1959); Salon Comparaison, Musee d’ Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (1961, 1964,1965), and the Salon de Mai, Musee d’ Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris and Tokyo (12 times between 1960 and 1993 and the Bienel de San Juan Grabado Latino Americano El Instituto de Cultura Puer-toriquena in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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AHMED GÓMEZAhmed Gómez, Holguín, Cuba, 1972. Comencé mis estudios de Artes Plásticas en la escuela vocacional de arte de Holguín, donde continué hasta el nivel medio. Transcurriendo el 3er año de nivel medio, fuí expulsado de la escuela de nivel medio de Holguín por “problemas ideológicos” y me trasladé a La Habana donde terminé los estudios en la Escuela Nacional de Artes. Durante esa época participé en diversas exposi-ciones personales y colectivas donde se destacan “Expooo” Hol-guín 1989, “Todo Abstracto” Holguín 1992 y “El Objeto Escul-turado” La Habana 1993. Mi preparación terminó en el Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) en el año 1994. Luego viajé a México, allí pasé a formar parte de un equipo de restauración de pintura mural, donde mi trabajo se nutrió de nuevos elementos del mundo de la restauración. En el año 1998 viaje a Miami, donde actualmente resido y llevo a cabo mi proyecto pictórico.

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ALDO MENÉNDEZAldo Menéndez nació en Cienfuegos, Cuba 1948, pintor, diseña-dor gráfico, periodista y crítico de arte. Estudió pintura en Viena, en la Escuela de Arte de Cienfuegos y en la Escuela Nacional de Arte de La Habana (ENA). Se destaca como cartelista dentro del llamado “Boom del cartel cubano de los 60” desde su puesto de diseñador gráfico del Consejo Nacional de Cultura (CNC). En 1973 es nombrado director artístico de la revista R y C del Min-isterio de Cultura de Cuba. En 1972 es nombrado miembro de la Unión Nacional de Artistas y Escritores de Cuba (UNEAC). Hacia 1972 es uno de los principales introductores de la corriente foto-realista en Cuba. Su obra y sus artículos de arte influyeron activa-mente en el movimiento artístico y en el cambio cultural de los 80. En 1981 es designado Director de Promoción del Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales (FCBC) y luego Subdirector de Creación Artística de la propia institución, ese mismo año es elegido asesor de la Escuela Nacional de Arte de Ciudad de Panamá. En 1983 funda el Taller de Serigrafía Rene Portocarrero, Los Encuentros Internacionales de Serigrafía Artística de La Habana y la Comisión Nacional de Tasación, Adquisición y Expertizaje del FCBC; siendo distinguido ese mismo como uno de los organizadores de la Primera Bienal Wifredo Lam de La Habana, asesor del Museo Nacional y del Centro Lam, también en el 83 es escogido asesor de la Escuela Nacional de Arte de Managua y asesor de la directora de artes plásticas de Nicaragua. En 1985 entra a formar parte de la ejecutiva de La Sociedad Internacional de Artistas Plásticos (AG-IAP). En 1987 es jurado del Simposio Internacional Intergraphik de Alemania. En 1988 funda el segundo Taller Portocarrero en Barcelona. En 1989 se le comisiona la realización de un mural para la Escuela de Computación de la Comunidad de Madrid. En 1990 crea el Curso de técnicas Serigráficas y Apreciación Plástica Seri-Cuba 90, La Habana. Obtiene la residencia española. Ha sido muy rica su relación con el arte y la cultura española, país donde ha publicado dos libros: 1988 Pintura Cubana Actual (editado por Fundación Jaume Guache de Barcelona) y 2003 Colección Porto-carrero (editado por la Editorial Altoduero). Es seleccionado

jurado del Premio Internacional Encuentro Atlántico, Asturias. En 1994 se establece en Florida, USA. En 1998 se convierte en artista de la Galería Arte y Naturaleza de España, hasta el 2007. En 1999 aparece en el reconocido Diccionario Crítico y Documentado de la Pintura (tomo 9), de E. Bénézit, de Francia. En el 2000 se nacionaliza norte americano. En el 2001 no solo aparece docu-mentado como artista en el volumen Memoria Cuban Art of the XX Century, editado por California International Arts Foundation sino que además varios textos Foundation sino que además varios textos suyos reseñan a otros artistas. En 2003 recibe un homenaje en la VII Feria Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo Arcale, de Castilla y León con motivo de haber fundado el Taller Rene Porto-carrero (XX aniversario). En el 2006 edita en Madrid junto con el poeta Mexicano Jorge Valdez el portafolio Nostrum. En el 2008 es el artista invitado por la Diputación de Cuenca, España a presidir la Inauguración de la Exposición El Doncel en esa ciudad y por en-tonces prologa el libro Carlos García, Editorial Talento Arte Visual

S.A. Mexico DF. Entre las muchas exposiciones que ha curado a lo largo de su vida, produce en mayo del 2009 ¡Hacia París! con el apoyo de la Alianza Francesa y Cremata Gallery de Miami.

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ALEJANDRO AGUILERAAlejandro Aguilera is a Cuban artist born in 1964 in Holguin, Cuba. He presently lives and works in Atlanta. His work as an artist is diverse as he is adept at installation, sculpture, drawing, interior design as well as furniture design.

He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Escuela de Arte in Holguin, Cuba, as well as a Master of Fine Arts at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba and his post graduate Fellow-ship was completed in 1990 at the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, USA.

His work has been exhibited widely within the United States as well as abroad. Some of his Solo Exhibitions have been, A Brief History of Usage (2007) , Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, USA; Forty Yards of Line ( 2006), Milledgeville College and State University, USA; The Art of making Art ( 2004), Ty Stokes Gal-lery, Atlanta, USA; A.A. A Decade of Assemblages, University of Georgia, Athens, USA.

Some of his Group Exhibitions have been: Traveler (2005), The Dalton Gallery, Agnes Scott College, Atlanta, USA; Re- Defining Georgia(2004) The Columbus Museum, Columbus, USA; Premio Marco(1995), Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey, Mexico; La isla possible(1995), Contemporary Art Center, Barcelona, Spain.

His work is also included in many public collections such as: Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, USA; Hammons House Galleries, Atlanta, USA; Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA; Ramis Barquet Public Collection, New York, USA; as well as in the Peter Ludwig, Aachen Museum, Germany.

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ALFREDO LOZANOAlfredo Lozano was born in Havana, Cuba in 1913 and died in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1997. He is a second generation artist and member of the Origenes group. He studied at the Academia de Bellas Artes San Alejandro in Havana, Cuba, At Academia San Carlos, Mexico and the Sculpture Center of New York. His first Solo show was at the Havana Lyceum in 1949. Since then, and until the time of his death in 1997, he exhibited his sculptures and drawings widely in both Solo and Group Exhibitions.. He is in the permanent Collection of CBS International, The Lowe Art Musuem and the The Museo de Bellas Artes in Havana, Cuba.

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ALONSO MATEOAlonso Mateo is a Cuban artist, born in Havana, Cuba in 1964 and who now lives and works in Miami, Florida. He is a painter as well as specializing in installations. He studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), graduating in 1990.

Mateo has exhibited widely both internationally and abroad. Some of his recent Individual Exhibitions are “ Illusion and Fantasy”, Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale Arizona, 2008; “El Gabinete del Doctor”, Farside Gallery, Miami, 2008 and “Plano Americano, Emma Molina Gallery, Monterrey , Mexico, 2007. His collective exhibitions in recent times include, “New Acquisitions”, Miami Art Museum, Miami 2009; “Arte no es la Vida”, Museo del Barrio, NY 2008; “Killing Time”, Exit Art Gallery, NY 2007 and “Arco 2006”, Emma Molina Gallery, Spain 2006.

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ANA ALBERTINA DELGADO Ana Albertina Delgado was born in Havana, Cuba in 1963 and obtained her U.S. citizenship in 1999. She began her studies of art at San Alejandro National School of Fine Arts in Havana in 1979. Subsequently, she graduated in Arts and Letters and entered the university –level Higher Institute of Arts. Ana Albertina obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in Plastic Arts, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1988.

Together with four other artists, Ana Albertina founded the art group known as Puré. Puré’s contributions to the Cuban aesthetic was the incorporation of popular and social themes into the art world. She has also participated in several collective exhibitions of the generation known as Cuba’s Generation of the Eighties. Ana Albertina has exhibited internationally in Latin America, the United States and Europe.

Permanent Collections: The Lowe Art Museum, University of Mi-ami; Museum of Art , Ft. Lauderdale; Museum of Art, University of Guadalajara, Mexico; National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.

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ANGEL RAMIREZ VAPOR A.R. Vapor was born in Havana, Cuba in 1970. He first studied at the Paulita School of Elementary Arts, Havana, Cuba from 1982-1985. Then attending the Academy of San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba from 1983-1989. He concluded his graduate studies at the National School of Sculptural Arts, graduating in 1991. After grad-uating he went on to work at the Cuban Cinematographic Institute of Art and Industry. In 1994 Vapor moved to Sapin, where he lived for a period of four years, then immigrated in 1999 to the United States. Today, he lives and works in Miami, Florida.

His Solo Exhibitions have included “Imaginacion Sintetica” Ism- Gallery, 2008; A.R. Vapor. “Papel, Madera y Metal” Edge Zones, N. Miami Ave, Miami. 2006; “La Mirada”, John Rhee, Washington, DC. 2003 and Angel Ramírez “ Horizontes de Papel” Alcala 213 Madrid, España in 1994.

Vapor’s group exhibitions have included, Palm Beach 3 Art Fair, Gallery Biba, West Palm Beach, Florida (2009); Americas Col-lection, Coral Gables, Fl. (2004); and “De Ida y Vuelta”, Centro Cultural Español, Miami, 2003.

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ANTONIA EIRIZ Antonia Eiriz (1929- 1995), was one of the leading artists of the 1960’s generation in Cuba. She graduated in 1958 from Havana’s San Alejandro Academy of Art, yet her artistic education came mostly from her close contact with the Abstract Expressionist artists of the group known as “Los Once” (1953-1955). Although Eiriz went her own way she was friends with the artists in this group and considered one of its founders, Guido Llinás her men-tor and inspiration.

Eiriz had her first one person show in 1964. By that time she had developed a highly personal style and iconography. Her work evolved and in the 1960’s her work had evolved into a tragic view of humanity and they came to symbolize the uncertain times and place in which she lived.

Eiriz was both a gifted artist and a talented teacher having inspired and taught many Cuban painters who have to this day been in-spired by her particular iconography and style.

In 1995, she had a posthumous exhibition of her work titled, “An-tonia Eiriz: Tribute to a Legend”, at the Museum of Fort Lauderd-ale, Florida.

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ARTURO CUENCAArturo Cuenca was born in Holguin, Cuba in 1955. He lived and worked in New York City until 2006 and now currently lives and works in Miami Beach, Florida.

Although working from photo documentation , Cuenca approach-es photography as para- consciousness, creating an internal vision from exterior “Realities” or what the eye sees. Cuenca is interested in ideas and the process of Visualization. Just as he plays with the experience of “Seeing”. Cuenca plays with language, making text and letters an inherent part of his work. His work is layered with fragments of time and the experience of trans-migration from Havana, Cuba to New York. But his connections with the past are far less direct or personal than those of Eduardo Muñoz. It is the present, in fact, and the powerful” grounding” of New York that Cuenca articulates in this work.

Trained as a painter, Cuenca creates each work as a unique object. He is now working almost entirely with computers. Personal exhi-bitions have included Arturo Cuenca: A Decade of Photography in New York and Mati-Matir II in Mexico City.

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BARUJ SALINASBaruj Salinas was born in Havana, Cuba in 1938. Salinas’ career began in the field of Architecture. He graduated from the Univer-sity of Ohio with an architectural degree in 1958. He left Cuba permanently in 1959. Salinas settled in Miami and later moved to Barcelona where he studied alongside artists Joan Miro and Antoní Tapies. Architecture informed his early work, but gradually he moved purely toward Abstract Expressionism. His work resembles paintings of space, where color is more important than form and itself becomes a principal theme.

Salinas’ paintings can be seen in important collections all over the world such as the Joan Miro Foundation, Barcelona; The National Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona; the NATIONAL Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico, D.F.; The Beit Uri museum, Israel; the Fine Arts Museum, Budapest; The Art Institute of Chicago and the Phoenix Museum of Art Arizona.

He has exhibited widely throughout the world in many Solo and Group Exhibitions. He lives and works in Miami, Florida.

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BEATRIZ MONTEAVAROBeatriz Monteavaro was born in Cuba. She received a BFA from Tyler School of Art of Temple University. Her work has been exhibited in venues such as Annina Nosei Gallery in New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; Tent in Rotterdam, Holland, Galerie Edward Mitterrand in Geneva, Switzerland; Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France; Centro Cultural Espa-ñol in Miami, FL; NFA Space in Chicago, IL; and The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C, among others. She has had solo exhibitions at Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL, Derek Eller Gallery, NYC, Galerie Baumet Sultana, Paris, France and The Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo, FL. Her work has been reviewed and featured in Flash Art, ArtUS, ArtNews and Art Papers. She was selected by Gean Moreno to produce an artist book through [NAME] Publications, Quiet Village, which was published in 2009. Monteavaro has been playing drums in bands since 1991 including The Human Oddites, Floor and Cavity. Her present band is called Beings and will be releasing a 12” through Amnesian Records this year. Beatriz Monteavaro lives and works in Miami.

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CARLOS ALFONZOCarlos Alfonzo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1950. He received a degree in Art from the Academia San Alejandro in 1973 and in Art history from the University of Havana, four years later. He taught and exhibited in Cuba in spite of extremely difficult conditions. In 1980, Alfonzo came to the United States in the Mariel boatlift.

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CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ CÁRDENASCarlos Rodríguez Cárdenas was born in 1962 in Sancti Spiritus, Villa Clara and completed his art studies in 1983 in Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). He formed part of the Rene Por-tocarrero workshop, where he began to make a name for himself in seriography, drawing and painting. He became a key figure in the resurgence of criticism and the arts movement at the time. He went into exile in Mexico in the early 1990’s and finally settled in New York.

Rodríguez-Cárdenas’ solo exhibitions include: The Architecture of the Landscape, Farside Gallery, Miami, Fl (2007); Architecture, Garden and Landscape: Memory of A Journey. Heidi Cho Gallery, New York, NY (2007); Work on paper 1994-1998 in New York. Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Coral Gables, Fl (1998).

Selected Group Exhibitions include: Cuba Untitled II, Heidi Cho Gallery, New York( 2008); Killing Time: An exhibition of Cuban Artists from the 1980’s to the present, Exit Art, New York , NY ( 2007) and Cuba la Isla Posible, Centro de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona, Spain.

Today his works are included in such major collections as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; The Museum of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; The Peter Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana.

Rodríguez Cardenas works and lives in New York.

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CESAR BELTRÁNCesar Beltrán was born Havana, Cuba in 1960. He graduated from San Alejandro Academy in 1978 and obtained a BFA at ISA (Instituto Superior de Arte) in 1983. He worked as an art director and graphic designer for several Cuban cultural magazines such as Casa de las Americas, Tablas and El Caiman Barbudo. In 1992 he moved to Mexico where he worked as Art Director for impor-tant publicity agencies such as Gutierrez Silva and Associates and showed his artwork in solo and collective shows in Mexico City and Ensenada. In 1994 he moved to Miami where he has lived and worked ever since.

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CÉSAR TRASOBARES César Trasobares is an artist, art activist and curator. He received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1979), the Cintas Foundation (1980), and Art Matters (1995). His work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibi-tions. He is presently challenged by the possibilities of using cash (bills, notes ) as art material and territory.

In addition to his art practice, he worked as a member of the crea-tive team at Bridge House, a design marketing company based in Miami Beach. In 1998-99 he served as consulting artist for the Artful Truth program with the Wolfsonian–FIU developing teach-ing materials about design and visual literacy with art teachers and students.

As advisor, Trasobares participated in Artist selection panels and committees: Percent for Art Project for Whitehall Ferry Terminal, New York ( 1998), Cintas Fellowship Panel ( 1997), National Endowment for the Arts Public Art Panels ( 1986-93) to name just a few.

He curated and served in artist selection Committees: Public Art Process, Miami (1985), Art Festival of Atlanta City Site public art projects (1993), Whitney Biennial Exhibition Advisory Commit-tee ( 1991) . He has written Essays on the programs he has ad-ministered and on various artists: Ana Mendieta, Antoni Miralda, Carlos Alfonso, among others. He has worked with collectors in selecting and commissioning artworks and in organizing collection records and exhibitions.

A graduate of Miami Springs High school in 1969, he attended Miami-Dade Junior College (A.A. Degree), Florida Atlantic University (B.A. in Art History) and Florida State University (graduate courses towards and M.A. in Art History). In 1993 he completed the appraiser’s program at the New York University’s Institute of Appraisal Studies.

He was born in Holguin, Cuba and immigrated to the United State in 1965 with his family. He has traveled extensively in Europe, Latin America and the US.

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CHRISTIAN DURÁN Christian Durán, a Cuban-American painter was born in the United States in 1976 and currently lives and works in Miami, Florida. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institue in 1998 with a concentration in painting and ceramic. Since his return to Miami he continues to paint and create sculptures. Durán has exhibited his work throughout the State of Florida; Kansas City, MO; Chicago, IL; Palm Desert, CA; and Almeria, Spain.

Durán’s solo and two-person exhibitions include You Take Me There ( 2009) at Farside Gallery, Miami, Fl; Bringing Up the Dead ( 2009) at the Art and Cultural Center of Hollywood, Fl; Path of Least Resistance ( 2007) at Ingalls & Associates, Miami, Fl; Views from Within: Christian Duran and Vickie Pierre ( 2006) at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Fl;

Notable group exhibitions include MIAMI The Edge of a Nation (2009) at Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert. California; Art-ists of Cuban Ancestry from the Permanent Collection (2007) at the Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Fl; and Aesthetics & Values (2006) at the Florida International University in Miami, Fl.

His work has been featured in Newspapers such as The Miami herald, The Sun Sentinel, The Broward/Palm Beach New Times and The Miami New Times.

Durán’s professional achievements include Artist in Residency at the Miami Children’s Museum (2006); the Florida Individual Art-ist Fellowship Grant (2005); artist in Residency Program recipient at the ArtCenter/South Forida (2005); and Artist in Residency Program Recipient at la Fundación Valparaiso in Almeria, Spain (2001).

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CONNIE LLOVERAS Connie Lloveras was born in Havana, Cuba October 16, 1958. She was educated at Miami- Dade Community College and later at Florida International University where she received her BFA in 1981.

Lloveras’ Solo Exhibitions include: “Connie Lloveras: Scat-tered Pieces”, Gruen Galleries, Coral Gables Florida, July, 2009 ; “Connie Lloveras: Construction, Canvas and Paper Works”, The Americas Collection Coral Gables, Florida. April, 2008; “Spiritual Landscapes”, Gruen Galleries Chicago, Illinois, November, 2006 and “Bread, Houses and Intuition”, The Americas Collection, Coral Gables, Florida. October, 2003.

She has also participated in many group Exhibitions some of which are “ArteAmericas,”, Miami Beach Convention Center, Mi-ami Beach, Florida, March 2010; “Uniendo America”, Galleria Co-dice, Managua, Nicaragua. November, 2009; “Ouvres Selecionees de la Gravure Contemoraine”, September, 2008 and Centenario de Maria Zambrano” , Museo de America Madrid, Madrid, Spain, March, 2005.

Lloveras’ art work can be found in many collections, a selection of which include: Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Velez, Malaga; Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Panama City, Panama and Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida.

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CONSUELO CASTAÑEDA Consuelo Castañeda was born in La Habana, Cuba, 1958. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro and at the Insti-tuto Superior de Arte (ISA) in La Habana. Castañeda participated in the Havana Biennials in 1984, 1986, and 1991. She belongs to the legendary generation of artists working in Cuba in the 70s and 80s, who created, for the first time in that country, an esthetic dis-course, and figurative vocabulary directly challenging the regime. During that time, she taught at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), coaching not only visual art technique, but also the artistic practice of those who would later reform the history of Cuban art. Luis Camnitzer writes, “Cuban art would not be the same without her work. She created catalysts for other people’s creation.” She received the Cintas Fellowship as an installation artist, for 1997-1998.

Castañeda, like many of her contemporaries, left Cuba in 1991 for Mexico where she worked for two years before moving to Miami, where she resides today. Her work as a painter, photographer and multimedia installation artist has been presented in museums in Cuba and the US, Latin America, Europe and Australia. Through the use of hyperrealism, kitsch, typography, comics, symbols of consumerism and religion, the artist offers us a different view of the apparent reality, giving the images a conceptual significance through nuances and hidden meanings.

Bio created by Americas Society to For Rent: Consuelo Castañeda

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CRISTINA LEI RODRÍGUEZCristina Lei Rodríguez is a Cuban-American artist who lives and works in Miami, Florida. She was educated at Middlebery College, Middlebury, Vermont and graduated with a BA in Art and Political Science. She continued her education at California College of Art in San Francisco, California, where she earned her MFA in Film, Video and Performance.

In New York she is represented by TEAM and in Miami by Fred-eric Snitzer Gallery. She has exhibited extensively both in solo and group exhibitions.

Lei Rodríguez has two upcoming Solo Exhibitions one in Team Gallery, NY, NY in 2011 and one at Frederic Snitzer Gallery in Miami, Fl. in 2011. Her most recent Solo Exhibitons are “New Work”, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami , Florida in 2008; “Overrun”, Team Gallery, NY, NY. in 2008; and “Daydreaming in the California Landscape”, Oakland Museum of California, CA in 2002.

Selected group Exhibitions are Greenhouse (Prince Valemar 1926), Art Projects, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, Fl 2009; Heaven, 2nd Athens Biennale 2009, Athens, Greece; “Born in the Morning, Dead by Night”, Leo Koenig, New York, NY, 2009; “Possiblity of an Island,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, Fl, 2008; “Uncertain States of America”, Songzhuan Art Center Bejing, China 2008; and “Heartbreaker”, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY, 2006.

She has been an artist in residence at Vizcaya Museum and Gar-dens, Miami, Fl. (2007); International Studio and Curatorial Pro-gram, New York, NY ( 2006) and Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA (2003).

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EDUARDO MICHAELSEN Eduardo Michaelson was born in 1920 in Santiago de Cuba. His grandfather was the German consul in Cuba, and his mother was Cuban. He first arrived in Cuba in 1939 at the age of nineteen. He is known mainly for naïve painting depicting Cuban Folklore. In 1944, he studied for five months at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “San Alejandro” in Havana. He abandoned his studies when he realized that drawing courses were required for two years and all he was interested in was color and naïve drawing. He always felt his real teacher was Walt Disney. In essence he is a self taught art-ist. In 1945 he was hired by the National museum as a tour guide and soon afterwards was promoted to the technical department. From 1955 until 1972 he was technical assistant in the museum’s restoration department. He arrived in the United States via the Mariel Boatlift and resided in San Francisco, California until his death in 2010 at age 89.

Some of his solo exhibitions were Oleos Michaelson in 1963 at the Lyceum of Havana, Cuba. In 1978 he also showed Escucha mi son – Michaelson 21 Oleos in the Galeria Ho Chi Minh of the Minsterio de Justicia in Havana. In 1966, an exhibit, Works by E. Michaelsen , appeared at Main Line Gifts, San Francisco, Califor-nia. In 1991 he named after himself another exhibition at the San Francisco Artspace. In 1994, his drawings Memorias de Cuba y Temas de Santeria, were exhibited at the Meridian Gallery of San Francisco. In 1997 he showed Michaelsen Oil on Canvas in the Cuban Collection of Fine Art in Coral Gables, Florida. He also participated in many group shows such as Trabajadores del Museo Nacional at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Ates in La Habana ( 1962). In 1995 he participated in Absolut Mariel – A historic Overview 1980-1995 which was displayed at the South Florida Art Center in Miami Beach, Florida.

His artwork is in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.

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ELIZABETH CEREJIDO Elizabeth Cerejido was born in Cuba and raised in Miami, where she has been an actively involved in the arts community as both artist and curator. She holds an undergraduate degree in Art His-tory from Florida International University and a Masters degree in Latin American studies and visual culture from the University of Miami. She specializes in contemporary Latin American art and photography, with an interest in contemporary Cuban and Cuban American art. She is currently Assistant Curator of Latin American and Latino Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

During her five year tenure as curator at The Patricia & Phil-lip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University she was responsible for curating the following exhibitions: Vision Revealed: Selections from the work of Abelardo Morell (which opened at the Frost Art Museum in 2004 and traveled to four lead-ing venues in Latin America: Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM), Sao Paulo, Brasil; Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, Mexico and Centro Cultural Reco-leta, Buenos Aires, Argentina); Lespri Endepandan: Discovering Haitian Sculpture; Mexterminator vs. Global Predator: A Solo Performance by Guillermo Gómez-Peña; Rubén Torres Llorca: Modelo Para Armar / Easy-to-Build and A Room of One’s Own: Teresita Fernández, María Elena González, Quisqueya Henríquez, and María Martínez-Cañas.

As an independent curator Cerejido organized the exhibition titled The Parallax Effect: Cuban and Cuban-American Photog-raphy at El Centro Cultural Español (Spanish Cultural Center) in 2003. She was the visual arts consultant and guest curator for the Cuban Research Institute (CRI) at Florida International Univer-sity, where she developed and curated projects for a series titled Cultura al Borde (Culture on the Edge), funded by the Ford Foun-dation. The series aimed to expose the South Florida student and community-at-large audiences to the work of Cuban artists and to the realities of creating artwork within varying socio-political contexts. The series, which focused on performance art, included installations by Tania Bruguera, El Soca & Fabián (former mem-bers of ENEMA), and Juan-Sí González. In 2009, Cerejido organ-ized a panel discussion through the University of Miami’s Latin American Studies program, on the subject of Cuban

Art Today featuring the following panelists: Tonel, Rachel Weiss, Gerardo Mosquera and Juan Martínez. Most recently, she was guest researcher at the Museo de Arte Moderna in Sao Paulo where she developed a project that addressed materiality and space in the work of contemporary Brazilian women artists.

Cerejido is an accomplished photographer whose recent work incorporates video and sound installations. Drawn from her own personal history, she addresses issues of identity, memory and the construct of family. She is represented by Bernice Steinbaum Gal-lery in Miami, FL. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, as well as, participated in prestigious national and international art fairs. In 2000, Elizabeth was one of the recipients of the prestigious Florida Consortium for Visual and Media Artists Fellowship. Her work is part of the following museum collections : MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), North Miami, FL.; MAM (Miami Art Museum), Miami, FL.; Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, PA.; and Centro de las Artes Visuales, Lima Peru, among others. She has published articles in various periodi-cals including Arte al Dia and ArteAmerica (Havana’s Casa de las Americas on-line magazine on the visual arts in Latin America) and Literal. She divides her time between Houston and Miami.

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EMILIO PÉREZEmilio Pérez is a Cuban-American artist born in New York in 1972. He studied at the University of Florida, and New World School of the Arts, Miami, Florida from 1992-1995, where he obtained his B.F.A. He later went on to study at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York from 1990-1992.

Most recently, Pérez’s painting’s were featured in the exhibitions: Topographies at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; and Signs of the Apocalypse/Rapture at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago. In addition, since his first Solo Exhibition at Galerie Lelong in 2007, Perez has presented a Solo Exhibition at FILIALE in Berlin and has been featured in group exhibitions in Dusseldorf, Philadel-phia, Houston and St. Louis.

His works can be found in the permanent collections of the Miami Art Museum; Albright-Knox Art Gallery; and Arkansas Art Cent-er, Little Rock; and in corporate collections throughout the U.S.

Pérez currently lives and works in Brooklyn. He is represented by Galerie Lelong.

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ERNESTO OROZA Ernesto Oroza was born in 1968 in Havana, Cuba. He is a con-temporary artist and designer working in Aventura, Florida. He earned his degree at the Instituto Superior de Diseno in Havana, Cuba in 1993 with a B.A. in Industrial design. He also attended the Instituto Politécnico de Diseño in Havana, Cuba and received a Certificate in Graphic Design in 1988.

Oroza is an important artist from the 90’s generation whose influ-ences come from contemporary Media culture, Industrial Design and Architecture. Oroza is one of the few artists from the 90’s generation whose education derived from Industrial Design.

His professional experience has been varied and has included be-ing a professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Design (1995-2000). He has also been a visiting professor at Les Ateliers, Ecole Nation-ale Superieur de Creacion Industrille (ENSCI) in Paris, France in both 1998 and 2006. He was co-founder of several art collectives in Havana, Cuba such as Laboratory Maldeojo and Ordo Amoris Cabinet.

Oroza has been the recipient of many prestigious Fellowships and Awards such as a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007, and a Cintas Fellowship in 2008.

His work has been exhibited internationally in many Solo shows as well as Group Exhibitions. Some of his Solo Exhibitions are Glo Oggetti della Necessita. Gish – Art Eco Design. Livornio, 2008. Statement of Necessity Alonso Art, Miami, Fl. (2008); and Architecuture of Necessity Arte de la Incertidumbre, Dominican Republic.

Group shows in which he has participated are SAFE: Design Takes on Risk: The Museum of Modern Art, MOMA, NY 2005. Sujetos Invisibles, Museo Rufino Tamayo , Mexico ( 2007) and most recently in 2010 Catastrophe? Quelle Catastrophe? Biennial, Quebec.

His work is featured in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Mon-treal, Canada; the Musuem of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; and the Saludarte Foundation, Caracas, Venezuela.

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FABIÁN PEÑA DÍAZBorn in Havana, in 1976, Fabian Peña has been focusing in nonconventional techniques and materials like biodegradable substances. Most of his recent pieces are made from insect parts in a process where he transforms these creatures into other anato-mies. He re-contextualizes these organic elements into significant objects that address existential matters. Using the parody as a resource, he defeats the archetype used to create art (material, techniques, and artistic object), this rejection produces a dis-course about life, death, love, beauty, and ugliness.

He studied art in San Alejandro and Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. He was part of the performance group Enema from 2000 to 2003 and the duo Elsoca and Fabian from 1999 to 2007. In 2004 Fabian moved to the United States and has had several solo exhibitions incluiding GRIZZZ, Magnan –Emrich Contempo-rary, New York (2008); The Frozen Moment, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami (2008); Biodrawings, Images Factory Art Founda-tion, Belize City, Belize (2004). Fabián has participated in group exhibitions at the Museum of Arts & Design, New York (2010); Bernice Steinbaum Gallery Miami (2009), Myto Gallery, Mexico DF, Mexico (2003); Art Basel Miami Beach with Galería OMR, Miami (2008); Exit Art, New York (2007); Mestna Galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2006).

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FRANK LEÓNBorn in Havana, in 1976, Fabian Peña has been focusing in nonconventional techniques and materials like biodegradable substances. Most of his recent pieces are made from insect parts in a process where he transforms these creatures into other anato-mies. He re-contextualizes these organic elements into significant objects that address existential matters. Using the parody as a resource, he defeats the archetype used to create art (material, techniques, and artistic object), this rejection produces a dis-course about life, death, love, beauty, and ugliness.

Nace en La Habana, Cuba en 1950. Estudia Radiotelegrafìa Naval y trabaja 5 años en la Flota Cubana de Pesca. En 1979 de gradùa de Licenciatura en Informaciòn Cientìfica y Bibliotecologìa en la Universidad de La Habana. Comienza a pintar de forma autodi-dacta en la dècada del 70 y a finales de esa dècada realiza trabajos sobre cuero y pieles en la Plaza de la Catedral, Cuba. Estuvo ligado a la Literatura tambien en los años 70 y escribiò un libro de poemas titulado “Una de cal, otra de arena”. En 1987 matricula el ISA (Instituto Superior de Arte) en la Habana Cuba donde estudiò la especialidad de grabado hasta que abandona Cuba en 1991. Viviò un año en Mèjico y otro año en Caracas, Venezuela antes de radicarse definitivamente en Estados Unidos. Tambien viviò un año en New York. Ha expuesto su obra en Cuba, Vene-zuela, Francia, USA, Mèxico, Costa Rica y participado en numero-sas exposiciones colectivas. Ha realizado 9 solo shows, incluyendo 2 en la Galerìa que lo representa comercialmente en Miami; Art Space Virginia Miller Galleries en Coral Gables. En el año 2000 fue el recipiente de la prestigiosa Fundaciòn Pollock-Krasner. En la actualidad (2010)radica en la ciudad de Miramar, Florida y ha orientado su obra hacia la nueva tecnologìa, usando la fotografìa digital y el video como herramientas expresivas. El libro titu-lado MiacroP, publicado en www.blurb.com, describe una nueva tècnica que parte de originales a escala microscòpica y utilizando tecnicas de fotografìa Macro estos originales son magnificados y trabajados con programas digitales lo que constituye una nueva vìa de crear en las Artes Visuales no conocida anteriormente y la cual es basada en la Teorìa filosòfica del reducccionoismo. Su obra se encuentra en Museos y colecciones privadas.

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GAY GARCÍA Enrique Gay García, is a Cuban sculptor, painter, printmaker and tapestry maker. Born in Santiago de Cuba on January 15, 1928. He studied at the Academia de San Alejandro in Havana, Cuba later moving to Mexico where he studied at the Instituto Politechnico in Mexico City and with David Alfaro Siqueiros in Mexico City. He also studied at the Art Institute in Venice and at the University of Perugia.

In 1962, he traveled to Italy on a Unesco Scholarship. As a political exile from Cuba he lived for several years in Europe, the USA and Puerto Rico before settling in Miami in 1978. He worked in bronze and steel, realized murals, drawings, lithographs and tapestries. His tapestries echo the concern with free brushwork and grainy texture evident in his drawings and lithographs. His painting and sculpture were initially influenced by Abstract Expressionism, but as a sculp-tor working in bronze and steel, his affinities were with Arnaldo Pomodoro. García’s originality lay in the tensions he created between the smooth and coarse textures, and between the geomet-ric and asymmetrical forms as a means of suggesting metaphors within an essentially abstract formal language.

García’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. His work is in many Permanent Collections, some of these are those of the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana, Cuba and at the Mu-seum of Modern Art of Latin America in Washington, D.C.

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GEAN MORENOGene Moreno is a Cuban-American artist working and living in Miami, Florida. He received his B.A. from Florida International University in 1997 and his M.A. from European Graduate School in 2008. He has participated in many solo and group exhibitions.

Morenos’ recent One – Person Exhibitions: “ Archipelago” ( with Ernesto Oroza), Saludarte Foundation, Miami, 2009; Gene Moreno/Jennifer Rochlin, Invova, Miwakee ( curated by Nicho-las Frank), 2007 and “Elephant”, Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami 2006. Recent Group Exhibitions include: “Catastrophe! Quelle Catastrophe?, Quebec City Biennial, Quebec, 2010; Proyecto Habitar, Spanish Cultural Center, Montevideo, Uruguay 2010; “Miami Noir”, Invisible Exports, New York 2009 and “The Fullness of Time”, Arndt & Partner, Zurich in 2008.

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GEORGE SÁNCHEZ-CALDERÓNGeorge Sánchez-Calderón is a Cuban-American artist living and working in Miami, Florida. He was born in New York in 1967. He studied at Florida International University where he obtained his BFA and went on to study Painting and Printmaking at The Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, R.I. where he received his MFA.

Sánchez-Calderón has had many Solo and Group Exhibitions. Some of his most recent Solo Exhibitions are “In God we Trust”, Farside Gallery, Miami, Fl, 2010; “Plinth/ Monument/Stoop, ZieherSmith Gallery, N.Y., N.Y., 2007 and “The Numbers Project”, The Freedom Tower, Miami, Fl, 2001. Group Exhibitions are De La Cruz Collection Inaugural Exhibit, 2009 “People Under the Stairs”, Locust Projects, Miami, Fl. curated by Claire Brukel and Miami Contemporary Artist, Freedom Tower, Miami, Fl. curated by Gene Moreno.

He has received many honors and awards some of which are Flori-da Cultural Consortium Award, 2004; Oscar B. Cintas Fellowship, 2003 and the Tillinghast Fellow in Art history, RISD, 1995.

Sánchez- Calderón’s work is included in many Public and Private collections some of which are Miami Art Museum, Miami, Fl; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami, Fl; Oscar B. Cintas Foundation, New York, N.Y. and Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz Collection, Key Biscayne, Fl.

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GLEXIS NOVOA Glexis Novoa was born in Holguin, Cuba in 1964. He is a graduate of the National School of Art in Havana, Cuba. Glexis has lived in Miami, Florida since 1995. He has shown his work in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. He has had more than nine solo ex-hibitions and has participated in fifty group exhibitions in the last ten years.

Glexis Novoa’s work can be found in public collections such as the American Express in Minneapolis, MN, The Centro de Cultura y Artes in Havana, Cuba, as well as in many private collections. He was a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine in 1998.

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GRETEL GARCÍAGretel García Cuba was born in Havana, Cuba and raised in Miami,Florida since the age of 3. She received her BFA from the University of Miami with a concentration in Sculpture and a minor in Print-making. Her exhibitions include 15/Caliber (Barbra Gillman Gallery-Miami), No Home Show (curated by Robert Chambers, Home of Eugena Vargas, Miami), Blanc (Mexican Cultural Institute, Washington D.C.), Echelon: who is watching you? (POLVO, Chicago), Stiching Deluxe (Orleans Street Gal-lery, Chicago) and more recently several exhibitions in Happy Dog Gallery in Chicago. Her curatorial work includes the Motel Show - a one night exhibition in the San Juan Motel in Calle Ocho of Miami. She currently resides in Miami.

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GUIDO LLINÁS Guido Llinás was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba and he left in 1963 for Paris where he lived in exile ever since. In 1953 he founded, along with ten other artists, an Abstract Expressionist movement in Cuba and the group came to be known as Los Once. The move-ment, which questioned the preceding generations, produced controversial avant- garde work. This ended an era in Cuban Art and opened a door to new artistic tendencies found throughout the world. His post-Cuba works blend the gestural qualities that relate him to Abstract Expressionism with veiled references to Afro-Cuban ritual. Llinás continued to evolve in ways that both testify to his personal and aesthetic energy and to his assimilation and re-invention of the symbology of his Cuban heritage.

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GUSTAVO ACOSTAGustavo Acosta is a Cuban painter who was born in Havana, Cuba in 1958. He was educated in the school of Visual Arts San Alejan-dro, Havana and at the Superior Institute of Art (ISA), Havana. His work has been exhibited widely both in the United States and abroad.

Acosta’s one-person exhibitions have included, “The Great Sys-tems”, PanAmerican Art Projects, Miami, 2009, “Questions to the Mirror”, Museum of Contemporary Art. Republic of Panama, 2009. “Transit Zones”, Latin American Masters. Los Angeles, California, 2008. “Los Juegos del Principe”, Nina Menocal Gal-lery, Mexico DF, 2006 and “Siete Tardes”, Galeria Muci, Caracas, Venezuela,1999.

Some of the selected group exhibitions he has participated in are “Irreversible”, CIFO, Miami, 2009. “Herir la Memoria”. Siguaraya Gallery, Berlin, 2009. “Recent Acquisitons”. Latin American Mas-ters, Beverly Hills, California, 2008 and “Miami Cuidad Metáfora”, Spanish Cultural Center, Miami, 2008.

Acosta has been awarded many prestigious prizes such as Gold Medal in Painting, First Carribean Biennial, Dominican Republic 1992; Painting Award, LVII Salon Nacional de Arte, Valdepenas, Spain, 1992; and Painting Award, Salon UNEAC, Havana, Cuba, 1988.

His work is in many public collections such as the National Muse-um of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba. Wilfredo Lam Center. Havana, Cuba. Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA, Miami, USA and Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida to name just a few.

Acosta currently lives and works in Miami, Florida.

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HERIBERTO MORA Heriberto Mora is a Cuban Artist living and working in Miami, Fl. He was born on December 6, 1965 in Havana, Cuba. He gradu-ated from the Fine Arts School of San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba in 1987. He currently works as a painting teacher at RAICES His-panic Cultural Art Center in Miami, Fl.

Mora has exhibited in many Solo and Group shows. Some recent Solo exhibits are, “ Interiores, Portrait Retrospective, 15 years of Portraiture, Centro Cultural Español, Coral Gables, Fl. 2010; “Umbrales” ( Thresholds) ALLEGRO Galeria, Panama 2008; “ Su-surros de luz” ( Whispers of Light) Espacio 304, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2008 and“ Dios es Amor”, Mosquera Orthodontics, Miami, Fl. 2005.

Recent Group Exhibitions are “Contemporary Cuban Art in New York, 2009; Karen Lynn Gallery, Boca Raton, Fl. 2009; “ Visiones”, Latin American Art Exhibition at Boca Raton Museum 2007 and Virginia Miller Gallery, Coral Gables, Fl. 2007 .

His work can be found in many Permanent Collections some of these are Nassau County Museum of Art, New York, NY, ; Berardo Collection, Museo Berardo, Lisboa, Portugal as well as many private Collections in Madrid, Paris, New York, Bogota, Miami, Washington, DC, Cuba , Caracas, Buenos Aires and Puerto Rico.

Mora has received many honors and awards and his work has been used in Films and as book covers for many prominent filmmakers and writers.

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HERNAN BAS Hernán Bás born in 1978 in Miami, Florida. He graduated in 1996 from the New World School of the Arts in Miami. His work indulges in the production of the romantic, melancholic, and old world imagery, and makes reference to Wilde, Huysmans and other writers of the Aesthetic and Decadent period in Literature.

“Hernán Bás: Works from the Rubel Family Collection” debuted in Miami at the Rubel Family Collection in December 2007. In February 2009, the exhibition traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, spanning a decade, this exhibition included examples from each of the artist’s series. In 2005, he presented Soap Operatic, a solo ex-hibition at the Moore Space, Miami. Other notable exhibitions in-clude the 2004 Whitney Biennial, New York; “Ideal Worlds: New Romanticism in Contemporary Art”, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; “ Triumph of Painting: Part Three”, Saatchi Gallery, London and “ Like Color in Pictures”, Aspen Art Museum.

His work is included in the permanent Collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco; Museum of Contemporary Art, LA; The Brooklyn Mu-seum, New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami, among others.

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HUGO MICHEL HERNÁNDEZ Hugo Michel Hernández is a Chicago-based artist and educator, born in Havana, Cuba in 1972. His primary work is painting and installation work. He has exhibited throughout Mexico, Cuba, Columbia and nationally. His most recent exhibit was at the 8th Bienial of Havana, Cuba. He is currently a faculty and staff mem-ber at Columbia College Chicago.

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HUMBERTO CASTRO Humberto Castro was born in Havana, Cuba on July 9, 1957. He is a graduate of the San Alejandro National School of Fine Arts and the Higher Institute of Art in Havana. He is an important artist of the 80’s generation in Cuba. His work and artistic attitude influ-enced generations within the intellectual scope of the island. He has received international awards and his work is internationally acclaimed and shown in renowned museums and private collec-tions.

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Ivan Toth Depeña is currently working as an artist and designer in Miami, Florida. Ivan has studied art, architecture and graphic design at Pratt Institute, the University of Miami and received his Maters in architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Re-cent exhibitions include, Melissa Morgan Fine Art in Palm Springs, The Museum of Fine Art Lauderdale, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, a solo exhibition at Ingalls & Associates, “Light and Atmosphere” and “Miami in Transition” at the Miami Art Mu-seum where he showed a variety of work consisting of drawing, painting, video, photography and sculptural installation.

IVAN TOTH DEPEÑA

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JORGE CAMACHOJorge Camacho is a Cuban painter born in Havana, Cuba on Janu-ary 5, 1934. In 1952, he left the law to dedicate himself to paint-ing. In 1959, he met his colleague Jose Luis Cuevas and they both investigated the sources of Mayan Culture.

Camacho arrived in Paris in 1959, where he met Agustín Cárdenas and in 1961, he met the poet André Breton, and he quickly joined their Surrealism tendencies.

His paintings deal with grief-stricken worlds where the most so-phisticated esotericism includes an outstanding charm. He is fond of saying “Todo el mundo habla de surrealismo, pero muy pocos lo comprenden.” (Everybody talks about surrealism, but it is only understood by a very few people).

He has lived in Paris since 1975.

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JORGE PANTOJAJorge Pantoja was born in Havana, Cuba in 1963. He left Cuba for Spain and remained there for several years. He currently lives and works in Miami, Florida.

Pantoja’s work has been exhibited in many Solo and Group Exhibi-tions nationally and internationally. He has exhibited at the Javier Lumbreras Gallery, The Gutierrez Fine Art Gallery, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami, where he showed his series 100 Haikus and at Books & Books, in Coral Gables, Fl. His most recent series of paintings based on cinema were exhibited at the Carol Jazzar Gallery.

Pantoja has been the recipient of many prestigious awards some of which are South Florida Cultural Consortium’s Visual and Media Artist’s Fellowship as well as a Cintas Fellowship. His work is in many important Public Collections some of which are the Mu-seum of Contemporary Art ( MOCA), North Miami, Fl.; Cintas Foundation, New York, NY, Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, Fl; Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, Fl and Miami Art Museum. He has appeared in numerous publications and a few years ago graced the cover of Art News Magazine.

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JUAN-SÍ GONZÁLEZ He describes himself as a communicator who doesn’t subscribe to any one discipline or style; his choice of media depends on the idea. He works in installation, new media, photography and performance. In Cuba, he used ephemeral forms such as body art, street performances, and underground videos. In the United States, he began building objects, large-scale mixed media video installations, and photography pieces. He studied at the National School of the Arts and the (ISA) Higher Institute of the Arts in Havana and was selected to participate in the first and second Havana Biennales. In 1987, he co-founded the group Magnet Project and began doing interactive political performances in the streets of Havana. In 1989, he co-founded another group “Ritual Art-De” (standing for art and rights) that began working under-ground with video to talk about social issues in Cuba. The group’s short film, “Ritual for an Identity,” was named the best film at the 1989 National Festival of Young Cuban Filmmakers. It was later shown in the Latin Film Festival in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Ollantay Foundation Center in New York, the Public Interest Law Center at New York University, Inter-American Gallery in Miami, Exit Art and El Museo del Barrio in New York City. Juan-Sí left Cuba for Costa Rica in 1991 as a political refugee. In Costa Rica he curated the country’s first show of emerging Cuban artists for the 80’s Generation living in exile and its first festival of underground Cuban videos, most of which had never been seen outside of Cuba. In 1993, he moved to Miami, where his work has continued to have a social and political focus. He has lived in Yellow Springs, Ohio since 2002, during which time he has been awarded two Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships, the Award of Merit in the Rosewood Arts Centre and the Spaces World Artists Program residency in Cleveland, Ohio.

Juan-Sí’s work has been exhibited at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Centro Provin-cial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño and Galería L in Havana, Cuba; the Goethe Institute, the National Contemporary Gallery, and the Mu-seum of Contemporary Art in Costa Rica; the Frost Art Museum, the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, the Naples Museum of Art, the Cuban Museum of Art and Culture, The Miami Art Museum, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Ambrosino Gallery, Gutierrez Gallery, the Inter-American Gallery, and the Hardcore Art

Contemporary Space in Miami; the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California; El Museo del Barrio, Exit Art and Ollantay Foundation in New York City; the Shirley-Jones Gal-lery, Archetype Gallery, Herndon Gallery, Rosewood Art Center Gallery, Spaces Gallery, Triangle Gallery, Olin Contemporary Art Gallery and the Dayton International Peace Museum in Ohio; The Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame in Indiana; the Art Gallery, Walters State Community College and Slocumb Gallery at Tennessee State University; Sarah Moody Gallery at The Univer-sity of Alabama; Louisiana Art Gallery, Louisiana Tech University; Turman Art Gallery, Indiana State University; Osuna Gallery, Washington, D.C.; International House Gallery, Philadelphia, and the Ailington Arts Center, Virginia in Pennsylvania; the Cam-bridge Arts Center, Massachusetts; Blaffer Gallery, University of Texas, Houston; Katherine Nash Gallery and Regis Center for Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Museo Carrillo Gil and Museo Amparo, Puebla in Mexico; Centre Georges Pompidou, France; SOF Art House Gallery, Toronto, Canada; the House of Culture in Prague; El Ateneo de Caracas, Venezuela; Kunsthalle Museum in Rostock, Germany; Rabindra Gallery and Lalit Kala Art Gallery, New Delhi, India; National Art Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Manzar Akbar Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan; Gallery of the Madurodam Foundation, the Hague; Cultural Center of Bechem, Belgium; House of Cul-ture of Pitea, Sweden; the Mestna Galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia; the Galerie Vincent Kunstraume and the Institute of Hispanic Culture, Vienna, Austria. He has also participated various international art fairs including, Art Chicago; FIA in Caracas, Venezuela; Art Fair in Belgium; Arco in Madrid; Photo Miami; Photo Buenos Aires in Argentina; Pinta, New York City, Art Miami, Scope, Arte Americas and Art Basel in Miami. His work is included in several private and public museum collections.

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JULIO ANTONIO Julio Antonio is a Cuban American artist born in Havana, Cuba in 1950. He studied at the Superior Institute of Arts, Havana, Cuba and at San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.

His work is a battle between the conscious and the subconscious; between the inconclusive and the defined; between the satirical and the tragic; between the poetic and the dramatic. It ranges from neo-expressionism to surrealism, from raw art to a more sophis-ticated one, using the metaphor and symbol as basic tools of my artistic language.

Antonio’s work has been exhibited internationally in Solo and Group Exhibitions. He has won numerous prestigious awards and his work belongs in many Public Collections some of which are, McArthur Foundation, Chicago, Ill; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Museum of Fine Art, Boston, Massachussets and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Velez-Malaga, España.

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LEANDRO SOTO Leandro Soto is a multidisciplinary visual/installation and perfor-mance artist who has been internationally involved with the arts for the past thirty years. Soto was one of the leading figures of the influencial “Volumen Uno”, an artistic movement that changed the course of Cuban Art in the decade of the 1980’s, in which he was the first artist in his generation to work with the Afro-Cuban herit-age. In his current work Soto continues to draw simultaneously on European and non-European cultural heritages and art forms.

Soto has participated in more than 162 group exhibitions and 91 solo art shows in museums, art galleries and alternative art spaces in Spain, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Czech Republic, Germany, Peru, Japan, Nicaragua Jamaica, Italy, Cuba, India, and the United States amongst others. His art is in the permanent collections of impor-tant museums: National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cien-fuegos Art Museum, Cuba; Art Museum of Ft. Lauderdale, Lowe Museum, MOCA Florida, New Delhi Global Arts Village Collec-tion, The Florida International University Art Collection. His art is also in the collection of Higher Art institutions such as Mount Holyoke College of Art Museums , Wheaton College Art Museum, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theater Research Institute at Ohio State University and in the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami.

As an educator he has taught and lectured at various Higher Edu-cation institutions in the U.S. and abroad (Arizona State Univer-sity, State University of New York, Mt. Holyoke College, Univer-sity of Havana and College of Arts in New Delhi, Whittier college, Ohio State University and University of Mass.)

In his performances and the visual/installation art which emerge from his performances. Soto responds to the postmodern coor-dinates of implosion and satire, often subverting the inceptions of culturally accepted notions of high/kitsch, traditional/pop, global/local, and profane/sacred art forms. The key to under-standing his work lies in the inner organization of the form and its metaphoric implications --- the synthesis and integration of values raising personal and cultural awareness.

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LEONEL MATHEU Leonel Matheu, a Cuban born artist is well-know with a career path of more than 16 years. With more that 25 Solo shows in both national and international venues, Leonel’s work has found its way into very important collections like the Lowe Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Miami and the Museo Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo (MAC) in Spain. Matheu has a profound interest in society and the use of a collec-tive memory as a way of communication.

Leonel Matheu lives and works in Miami, Florida.

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LEYDEN RODRÍGUEZ-CASANOVA Leyden Rodríguez-Casanova challenges the absoluteness of psy-chological and utilitarian narratives associated with out utilization and memory of everyday objects.

Leyden Rodríguez-Casanova is a Miami, Florida-based artist, whose family immigrated to the United States from Cuba dur-ing the Mariel Boatlift in 1980, a series of events that assiduously inform his body of work. He studied at the Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida and the New World School of the Arts, Miami. Rodríguez- Casanova was the recipient of a 2007 Reed Foundation Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center and has received prestigious awards including the South Florida Cultural Consortium. He has exhibited in Miami and New York, and his work has been featured in publications such as The Miami Herald, Artnet Magazine and Art in America.

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LILIAM CUENCA Liliam Cuenca studied at the Academia de San Alejandro in Havana and worked on printmaking at the Taller Experimental de Gráfica de la Plaza de la Catedral. She has had solo exhibitions in Cuba, Latin America, The United States, Europe and JAPAN. She is a recipient of the Cintas Fellowship and her work is in the Collection of the Contemporary Art and Culture Center in Osaka, Japan, The Housatonic Museum of Art in Connecticut and more recently, The Cristobal Gabarrón Foundation in Spain.

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LUIS CRUZ AZACETALuis Cruz Azaceta, a Cuban-American artist was born in Cuba in 1942 and came to the United States in 1960. He received a Bache-lor of Arts degree form the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His work has been shown in galleries and museums in the United States, including the Cayman Gallery in New York, Miami Dade Community College, University of California at Davis, Louisiana State University, the Chicago Art institute, and the Lowe Art Mu-seum of the University of Miami, among others. He has received many important awards, including fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Cintas Fellowships for Cuban Artists and writers.

Parodic self – representation and a powerful sense of distortion and agony are central to many of Cruz Azaceta’s paintings. As he has stated, Goya and Picasso have been two important influ-ences on the development of his style and pictorial language. Cruz Azaceta’s paintings explore themes of violence, agony and extreme human experiences. While his works from the 1960’s and 1970’s are manifestations of the Pop Art movement, the works from the 1980s onward are concerned with darker human experiences.

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LUIS GISPERTLuis Gispert is an Cuban-American sculptor and photographer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his MFA at Yale University in 2001, with a 1996 BFA in Film from the Art Institute of Chicago, and attended Miami Dade College from 1990-1992.

Gispert creates art through a wide range of media, including pho-tographs, film, sounds and sculptures, focusing upon hip hop and youth culture and Cuban American history. Some of his sculptures incorporate objects identified with Hip hop, such as turntables, chrome tire rims, and boom boxes into functional designs usable in other manners such as furniture.

His installation art graced the 2002 Whitney Biennal at the Whit-ney Museum of American Art, and has been exhibited interna-tionally at galleries and museums such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem New York, Art Pace in Texas, The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Contem-porary Arts Museum Houston, Palazzo Brocherasio in Turin, and The Royal Academy in London. Gispert has also participated in several exhibitions with high profile commercial galleries including Gagosian Gallery, Andrea Rosen Gallery in Chicago and Frederic Snitzer Gallery in Miami, Florida.

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LUISA BASNUEVOLuisa Basnuevo was born in Cuba and came to the United States via Spain. She received a B.F.A. from Florida International Uni-versity and a M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art in 1991. Her paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in the United States and abroad, including the Southeastern Center of Contemporary Art in Winston- Salem, North Carolina and the Musee de Luxenbourg in Paris, France. Her work is included in public and private collections throughout Florida, including those of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, and the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland. She is the recipient of Fel-lowships from the National Endowment for the Arts/Southeastern Arts Federation, the South Florida Consortium, and the Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Department of State.

Luisa Basnuevo works and lives in Miami, Florida.

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LYDIA RUBIOLydia Rubio’s multidisciplinary works are distinguished by the use of words and images in multi-paneled pieces and integrated installations. Her works suggest discontinuous narratives, riddles in spatial sequences. The paintings are often accompanied by artist journals.

Ms. Rubio completed in 2008, The Gate of Earth, a large scale pub-lic art commission sculpture and terrazzo floor design, for Raleigh Durham Airport. The Women’s Park Art Gates, a Miami Dade County Art in Public Places was completed in 2009. The Gate of Air, a second RDU commission, is due for 2010.

She is a recipient of the Creative Capital Professional Develop-ment Fellowship in 2007, Pollock Krasner Fellowship in 2006, the State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Painting 1994 and the Cintas Fellowship 1982.

Ms. Rubio’s works are in the permanent collections of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the Wolfsonian FIU, the Museum of Art Fort Lau-derdale, Miami Dade Community College, The Cuban Heritage Collection of the University of Miami, The Frost Art Museum, Bryn Mawr College and Lehigh University Art Galleries, and im-portant private collections in New York, Miami and Europe.

Ms. Rubio has a Masters degree from the Graduate School of De-sign, Harvard University and a B Arch degree from the University of Florida. She has traveled extensively and lived in Puerto Rico, Boston and New York, she is based in Miami, Florida.

She is currently represented by Beaux Arts Des Ameriques in Montreal QB, where she recently had a solo show Etrangere.

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MARCOS VALELLAMarcos Valella’s work is included in numerous public and private collections. His Solo Exhibitions include Paintings and Palettes, Farside Gallery, Miami, Fl. Present, Centro Cultural Español, Miami, Fl. and To be Here, 801 Projects, Miami, Fl.

He has been featured in numerous group exhibitions such as Paint-ings Edge, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA. One veritcal, unwavering band of light, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA. TIME + TEMP: Surveying the shifting Climate of Current Painting in South Florida, Hollywood Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, Fl. The Group Show, Parks Exhibition Center, Idyllwild, CA. Pause, Blackbird Space, San Francisco, CA. and Miami Now, Edge Zone Gallery, Miami, Fl.

Valella holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa.

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MARIA BRITO Maria Brito is a Cuban-American artist born in Havana, Cuba in 1947. In 1961, Brito entered the United States by way of Opera-tion Peter Pan. Brito received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Florida International University in 1978 and her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Miami in 1979.

A member of “The Miami Generation” of Cuban- born artists who relocated to the United States after Cuba’s communist revolution, Maria Brito had won acclaim for paintings and sculptures that evoke displacement, loss and the search for identity. Her work, praised for its intuitive appeal and its densely symbolic qualities, has earned national and international attention and is included in several permanent collections, including the Smithsonian Ameri-can Art Museum.

Brito has had many solo and group exhibitions all over the world. She lives and works in Miami, Florida.

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MARIA MARTÍNEZ-CAÑASMaria Martínez-Cañas was born in Havana, Cuba. She received a B.F.A. in Photography form the Philadelphia College of Art and an M.F.A. in Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. An artist who works with innovative, non- traditional photographic media, she has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad, with 34 one-person exhibitions and over 250 group exhibitions.

She is the recipient of a Cintas Fellowship; a National Endowment for the Arts award; and a Fulbright-Hays Grant, among others. Her works are included in the permanent collections of The Phila-delphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco; The Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona; The Mu-seum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC; among others.

Her work is represented by the Julie Saul Gallery, New York; Fred-eric Snitzer Gallery, Miami; Schneider Gallery Chicago; and De Santos Gallery, Houston.

She lives and works in Miami since 1986.

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MARIO ALGAZEMario Algaze is a Cuban-American photographer born in Havana, Cuba in 1947. He left Cuba in 1960 and settled in Miami, Florida. He begins his career in 1971 as a freelance photojournalist for national and international publications. He has traveled exten-sively as a freelance photographer and has devoted his career to documenting life in the cities and countryside of Latin America. His evocative photographs have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad.

Algaze has won many prestigious awards amongst them a Cintas Fellowship as well as one from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work is in many private and public collections such as the Tamayo in Mexico , The Santa Barbara Museum, The Duke University Museum and the Fundación Guayasamin in Quito.

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MARIO BENCOMO Mario Bencomo is a Cuban born artist. As a youth he was sent to live in Europe. At the age of 14, he left Spain for the U.S. arriving by himself in New York City in 1968. He never broke away from his original cultural links to Cuba or later Spain, often returning to Europe for extended stays, adding his American education to his multicultural experience and work. In 1996, he returns to Cuba for the first time, almost three decades after he left. Bencomo visits Cuba periodically since then. He is based is Miami.

His work related to various themes; the sensual ambiguity of form found in nature, mythology, mystical ecstasy, history and personal experience. Often blurring the line between the spiritual from the sensual. A voracious reader his work is also inspired by poetry.

Bencomo’s work is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Detroit Institute of Art, Denver Art Museum, Frost Art Museum at FIU, Miami , Museo de Arte Contempo-raneo, Panama, Museo de Bellas Artes , La Habana, Cuba, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C. Museo de Arte Maria Zambrana, Velaz-Malag, Spain, Lowe Art Museum, U. of Miami, Norton Museum of Art and many others.

His work is exhibited internationally in many art galleries and mu-seums, including; Museo de America, Madrid, Chicago institute of Art, Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City, The Minnesota Museum of Art , St. Paul and many other important institutions.

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MARIO PETRIRENAMario Petrirena is a Cuban-American artist. He studied at The University of Florida where he obtained his B.A. and later he received his MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, School for American Craftsman, Rochester, NY.

Petrirena’s work is informed by his dual heritage. It is personal, au-tobiographical, often a mystery even to himself. Through his work he explores the complexities, the duality, the contradictions, the humor, the beauty and the fragments that are an ever-present part of his life. They are his attempts to understand himself and how he fits into this world.

His most recent Solo exhibitions are Soul House, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA , 2010; My Mother’s House and Other Struggles, Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, Ga, 2010; and Abstractions and Other Realities, at Farside Gallery, Miami, Fl.

Group exhibitions have included Recent Acquisitons, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Fl, 2010; Speak (Again) Memory: Carlos Estevez and Mario Petrirena, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA and Unbroken Ties, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA.

Petrirena’s work can be found in many public collections some of which are the Cintas Foundation, New York, NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta, GA.

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NESTOR ARENASNestor Arenas is Cuban artist born in Holguin, Cuba in 1964. He studied at the Professional School of Plastic Arts in Holguin, Cuba from 1981-1985 and later completed his studies at The Superior School of Arts, Havana, Cuba where he studied from 1985-1990. He currently lives and works in Miami, Florida.

Arenas has participated in many Individual and Collective exposi-tions both nationally and internationally. As well as having won many awards and grants in his distinguished career as an artist.

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PABLO CANO Born in Havana, Cuba in 1961, Pablo Cano was on the last flight out of the country before the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. He has since been a resident of Miami’s Little Havana, and is regarded by art patrons and critics alike as one of Florida’s premier contempo-rary fine artists.

Since Childhood, marionettes have fascinated Pablo. At the age of ten, he was mounting elaborate plays for his family featuring puppets constructed of household bric-a-brac. His primary work today continues to center around the marionettes that he fashions from found objects, and the performance pieces he composes to showcase these protagonists.

Cano Reveals” I create a dream world where the inanimate objects come to life-springing from my imagination in the Surrealist tradi-tion. But my work is founded on Dada Ideals. The Dadaists used chance, spontaneity, and childlike innocence in order to create their statement. Their intention, as is mine was to break with tradi-tion and painting technique and to return to the elemental basics of art; to start from scratch; to allow the process of imagination to unfold and begin anew each time I create.”

Influences from the color palette of Russian Constructivist Alexan-dra Exter, who assembled marionettes in the 1920’s, the mechanics of the pieces by Alexander Calder’s Circus and Cubist bricolage can be seen in Pablo’s work. By incorporating carefully selected discarded debris from the urban streets he frequents, as well as miscellany brought to his studio by friends from all over the world, Cano has ultimately developed his own charming and inventive palette that has been described as unlike any other artist’s today.

Cano employs numerous art forms in his work including oil and watercolor painting, fine drawing, charcoal and ceramic sculpture and is accomplished in each of these areas. He earned a MFA from Queen’s College of the City University of New York and has studied and worked in New York, Paris, Baltimore and Miami. The MUSEUM OF contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami, Florida has commissioned his work annually since 1997.

Pablo Cano’s work is found in numerous public and private col-lections internationally including the Museum of Contempo-rary Art, North Miami, Fl; Museum of Art/ Fort LAUDERD-ALE, Fl; Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY at New Platz, New Platz, NY; The Columbus museum of Art, Columbus, Ga; The Minneapolis institute OF arts, Minneapolis, MN; Art in Public Places, Olympia, Ga; Bacardi, Miami, Fl; R.J. Reynolds company,

Winstom- Salem, NC; Sagamore Hotel, Collection of Martin & Cricket Taplin, Miami Beach, Fl; Rubel Family Collection, Miami, Fl.

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PAUL SIERRAPaul Sierra was born in Havana, Cuba and immigrated to the Unit-ed States in 1961. He received his formal art training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Although he grew up in Cuba his artistic and emotional links to his Latin roots are intertwined with the influence of North American art and Culture. Sierra is known for his large and colorful paintings that combine Expressionism with Magic Realism.

Sierra has exhibited his work in Solo and Group Exhibitions internationally to much acclaim. His art work can also be found in many collections such as Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Il; National Museum of Art, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.; Mu-seo del Barrio, New York, NY; Frost Art Museum, Miami, Fl and many other international collections.

Sierra lives and works in Chicago and has done so for three dec-ades.

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RAFAEL LÓPEZ-RAMOSSancti Spiritus, Cuba, 1962. A visual artist and critic. Graduated with a major in painting and drawing at the Academia San Ale-jandro, Havana, 1985. 4 years of Master studies at the Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana, 1987-1991. His art has been recently exhibited in Contemporary Cuban Art in New York (CANY), Dactyl Foundation, NY, Valoarte, Galería Nacional, Costa Rica, 2008; Café VIII: The Journeys of Cuban Artists, Temple Univer-sity, Rome Campus, Italy, 2008; Miami: Ciudad Metáfora. Centro Cultural Español, Coral Gables, Fl., 2008; Killing Time, Exit Art, N.Y., 2007. Between 1997 and 2006 resided in Canada whose citizenship he adopted. Currently lives and works in Miami, regu-larly collaborates with Art Nexus and Art Pulse magazines and the curatorial team of Miami Dade College Art Gallery System.

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RAFAEL SORIANO Rafael Soriano was born in Cidra, the province of Matanzas, Cuba in 1920. He is one of the major third generation Latin American artists of his time, along with Antonia Eirez and Agustín Fernán-dez, amongst them. In 1943, he graduated from the San Alejandro National Academy of Fine Arts in Havana, and thereafter was one of its founders. As well as Professor of Fine Arts at the School of Fine Arts in Matanzas, Cuba.

Soriano broke with traditional folkloric themes that dominated Cuban painting at the time and instead headed towards abstraction that is concerned with the use of light, form and shadow in a very particular and unique way which has come to be recognized as his own style.

Soriano’s first exhibition was in the Lyceum Club of Havana, Cuba in 1947. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in numerous important Museum Collections as well as Private Collections. He is also the subject of a Monograph, Rafael Soriano: The Poetics of Light, the first ever written on the artist, by the art critic and poet Ricardo Pau-Llosa.

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RAÚL PERDOMORaúl Perdomo was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and is current-ly based in Miami, Florida. He gained his BFA from Florida State University in 1989. Selected shows include, ‟Edge Fair 2010‟ , Time + Temp‟ and The Fourth Florida Biennial 2009 at the Art & Culture Center of Hollywood, “The Art of Uncertainty” at Edge Zones, Dominican Republic, ‟The Drawing Show 2009” Carol Jazzar Gallery, Miami, DAEA the Art Show II 2007; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami, Florida. New Works on Paper 2007, Ingall’s Gallery, Miami and Aqua Fair 2007, Miami, Florida.

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ROGELIO LÓPEZ MARÍN(Gory)Rogelio López Marín (Gory) was born in Havana, Cuba in 1953. He attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting at the National School of Art in Havana, Cuba in 1973. Subsequently, he took a photographic and graphic design course under Cuban artist Paul Martínez in 1976. In 1978, Gory obtained his master of Art in Art History at the University of Havana.

Permanent collections: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 20th Century Art, New York ( painting), The Corcoran Gallery of Art (Corcoran’s Permanent Collection of Photographs), Washington , D.C.; Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, Fl; Mu-suem of Art Ft. Lauderdale, Fl(painting and photography), Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA (photography); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba.

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RUBÉN TORRES LLORCARubén Torres Llorca is a Cuban artist who was born in Havana, Cuba in 1957. He is a very important artist from the 80’s genera-tion. He specializes in painting, drawing, sculpture, collages and photography. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “ San Alejandro” in Havana from 1972-1976. He continued his education at Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) also in Havana from 1976-1981. From 1990-1993 Torres Llorca resided in Mexico City, Mexico and later moved to the United States in 1993; he has resided in Miami since that time.

Torres Llorca has during his career obtained many awards and recognitions he has also had many important Solo and Group Exhibitions. Some of his most recent Solo Exhibitions include “Los peores hombres cuentan las mejores historias” Praxis- New York, NYC, 2009; “The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Guilty”, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MARP), San Juan, PR, 2008 and “Una Historia para Niños basado en un Crimen Real”, Centro Cultural Español, Coral Gables, Fl., 2007. Selected Group Shows are “Cuba Avant- Garde”, The Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, Fl. 2010 ; “Irreversible”, The Cisneros Fontanal Art Foun-dation (CIFO), Miami, Fl. 2009 and “Aesthetics & Values”, the gallery at Green Library, Florida International University (FIU), Miami, Fl. 2009.

Torres Llorca’s work can be found in many Permanent and Private Collections such as the Mosquera Collection, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana, Cuba; Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art ( MOCA), Miami, Fl.; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico DF and The Frost Museum, Miami, Fl., amongst others.

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SEGUNDO PLANESSegundo Planes was born in Pinar del Rio Cuba in 1965. He received his artistic education from Escuela Provencial de Arte Pinar del Rio, Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) , La Habana and at Instituto Superior de Arte(ISA) La Habana.

Planes work is internationally-acclaimed and shown in renowned institutions and galleries all over the world. Some recent Solo exhibitions are “Tropicas de la Vejez”, GE Galeria, Garza Garcia, Mexico ( 2008); “Insomnio” Centro de las Artes, Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico (2006) , and “Memorias del Crico”, Instituto de America/Centro Damian Bayon, Santa Fe, Granada, Spain ( 2003). Group exhibitions are “Master Paintings of American Art”, Gary Nader Collection Center, Coral Gables, Fl.(2006) and “EN LAS FRONTERAS/IN BORDERLINES (Arte Latinoamé-ricano en la colección fel MEIAC), itinerante por los institutos Cervantes en Europa Central, Praga, Milan,Roma, Berlin, Viena, Moscu, Bruselas, etc…

Segundo Planes’ work can be found in many prestigious col-lections all over the world some of these are Colección Diana y Moises Berezdivin (Puerto Rico), Colección Diego Sada (Mon-terrey, Mexico), Oded Goldberg COLLECTION ( New York); Colección Pascual – Torres (Granada, Spain) amongst others.

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SILVIA LIZAMASilvia Lizama was born is Havana, Cuba, in 1957 and currently lives in Hollywood, Florida. She received her BFA degree from Barry University, where she is now a Professor of Photography, and her MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology in Roches-ter, New York.

Having exhibited her hand-colored photographs since 1978, her work gained national and international attention and has been included in prestigious exhibitions and collections. Major awards include the Southern Arts Federation/ NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship Grant (1993) and the South Florida Cultural Consor-tium Grant (1992), as well as Miami Dade Art in Public Places commission for the Deering Estate in Miami, Florida(1999).

Ms. Lizama’s work appears in the following publications: Espacio C: Arte Contemporaneo, Camargo, Espana (2006), Breaking Bar-riers ( Musuem of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Publications, 1997), Aperture 141 Cuba: Image and Imagination( Aperture, Fall 1995), Outside Cuba/Fuera de Cuba( Rutgers University Publication, 1989), Photographic Retouching ( Eastman Kodak’s Publications, 1987) and Darkroom Expression ( Eastman Kodak Foundation Publication 1984), among others.

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BERT RODRÍGUEZ Bert Rodríguez was born in Miami, Florida in 1975. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the New World School of the Arts in 1998. Additionally, he studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Portland Oregon.

Rodríguez works in a variety of media including: Film, Video, Photography, Sculpture, Installation and Sound. He has exhibited and received commissions through many institutions all over the world. Recent projects include: A Wall I built with my Father and A Meal I made with my Mother, two site specific installations for Le Plateau, FRAC Ile de France PARIS (2008) ; In the Beginning …. For the Whitney Biennial, New York (2008), and Where You End and I Begin: a performance-based installation commissioned by the Frieze Foundation on the occasion of the Freize Art Faif, London (2008) And In Your Image: The Best of Bert Rodríguez Greatest Hits Vol. I, a survey show presented by the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, Fl. (2009).

His most recent Solo Exhibitions are: A Man Called Bert, An-narumma 404 Nales, Italy (2010); I’ll cross that Bridge when I get to it, Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Fl (2010). Group exhibits, Beg Borrow and Steal at the Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Fl. (2009); Disappearances, Shadows and Illusions, Miami Art Mu-seum, Miami, Fl.(2008.)

Rodríguez’s work can be found in many Public Collections includ-ing Rubell Family Collection, Miami Fl; Museum of Contempo-rary Art, North Miami, Fl; Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO. and the Miami Art Museum, Miami, Fl.

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YOLANDA SÁNCHEZA native of Havana Cuba, Dr. Sánchez migrated to the United States in 1960. She obtained a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Florida State University in 1979 and has practiced and taught psychology at the graduate level for 24 years. While working as a psychotherapist, Dr. Sánchez also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Yale University in 1994. She is a Fullbright Scholar, completing her fellowship as a painter in Spain in 1995.

She also created and manages the Fine Arts and Cultural Affairs di-vision of the Miami- Dade Aviation Department and also oversees Mia Galleries, The Children’s Art Program, continuing temporary exhibitions, and collaborations with cultural groups and business partners.

A working artist, Dr. Sánchez has exhibited her work in dozens of venues and her paintings form part of public collections at the Graham University Center at FIU, The Art Museum at FIU and the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale. She has taught at FIU, the University of Miami, Nova University and at Yale.

“My work, in general is a search for re-enchantment, for a way to reach below the surface of things, to find the point of connection with life. My goal is to nudge the viewer into a deeper experience of the present, where the “circumference of self is dissolved to pro-vide a moment of contemplation without literally telling a story.”

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Exhibition Checklist Gustavo Acosta Contando las horas #2 1997 Acrylic on canvas76 x 76 inches

Alejandro Aguilera Paisajes coloniales1995 Polychromed wood and canvas100 x 73 x 5 centimeters

Alejandro AguileraArbol-Sueño2001 Polychromed wood, clay and metal50 x 15 x 18 inches

Carlos Alfonzo Trust 1990 Oil on canvas 96 x 72 inches

Mario Algaze Homenaje a TitónLa Habana, Cuba 1999-2000 Gelatin Silver Print16 x 20 inches

Mario AlgazeEspejo BarrocoOtavalo, Ecuador, 1988 Gelatin Silver Print [Printed 1984]16 x 20 inches

Mario AlgazeCurridabatCosta Rica, 1987 Gelatin Silver Print [First Printing]14 x 17 inches

Mario AlgazeCantinaLima, Peru, 1983 Printed 1999 [4 of 10]Gelatin Silver Print20 x 24 inches

Julio Antonio The Last Rafter1997 Mixed media on canvas50 x 60 inches

Nestor Arenas RD-G-097 2005 Digital photograph20 x 30 inchesEdition: 1/5

Nestor ArenasPK-2-RM2005 Digital print20 x 30 inchesEdition: 2/5

Nestor ArenasRM-BR 0042005 Digital print20 x 30 inches

Luis Cruz Azaceta Mechanized Head 1985 Acrylic on canvas 30 x 24 inches

Hernán Bás Fleeting Moments2005 DVD (2 disks)5 minutesEdition: 8/10

Hernán BásUnwholesome 2005 Oil on wood 24 x 17 inches

Luisa Basnuevo Blue Seeds1999 Oil on canvas67 x 80 inches

José Bedia Abrupta Salida 1994 Acrylic on canvas53-1/2 x 59-1/2 inches

César Beltrán Zanja2009 Acrylic on canvas96 x 84 inches

Mario Bencomo Rain Forest 1984 Acrylic on canvas60 x 50 inches

María Brito Self-Portrait 1989 Mixed media57 x 16-1/4 x 37 inches

Adriano BuergoDomino Dancing2002Acrylic on canvas37 x 54 inches

María Martínez Cañas The Present Absent [8]1999 Diazo photogram mounted on canvasUnique78 x 84 inches

Pablo Cano Tyrannosaurus Rex2005 Trashcan, purse, wooden forks & rubber8’ x 3’ x 9’

Pallas Athena2009 Ventilator fan, clay & glassDimensions variable

Guardian Angel, MOCA commission: The Beginning2005 Mixed mediaDimensions variable

Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas Paisaje (tres casas, un avión, un helicóptero) 1998-99Mixed media on canvas67 x 107 inches

Leyden Rodríguez Casanova The Beach2004 Duratran and motion lightbox25 ½ x 17 ¾ inches

Consuelo Castañeda To Be Bilingual. 1994. Lesson #2: Verbs (Fuck)1994 Acrylic on canvas66 x 66 inches

Humberto Castro Como los peces 1998 Oil on canvas59-1/4 X 78-3/4 inches

Elizabeth Cerejido From the Absence Series: Today My Father Dropped His Body2001DVD

Elizabeth CerejidoEdited by: Elizabeth Cerejido and Mark KovenEdition: 1/5

Elizabeth CerejidoNUDE LXXXII1998Silver gelatin print (unique)48 x 48 inches

Arturo Cuenca Left Wing Key2000 Acrylic on canvas35 x 59 inches

Arturo CuencaShip-Smoke-Wing1993 acrylic on canvas with object70 x 70 x 10 inches

Liliam Cuenca Searching for a Light1997 Acrylic on canvas54 x 45 inches

Ana Albertina Delgado La realidad de un sueño 1997 Oil on canvas49 x 91 inches

De noche cuando no sueño1994 Oil on canvas30 x 28 inches

Ivan Toth Depeña Like Never Seems from the series Dystopian Diaries2000 DVD 3.58 min.Edition: 2/5

Fabián Peña Díaz Hallucinations (collection #1) 2007-2010

Fabián Peña Díaz Fragments of cockroach wings on crystal Dimensions variable

Christian Durán Apparition 2006 Oil on canvas 65 x 54 inches

Antonia Eiriz Sin título1966 Ink on paper29 ¼ x 20 1/8 inches

Agustín Fernández Untitled1978 Oil on canvas54 x 44 inches

Gay García Icaro 1990-1994 Bronze52-3/8 x 17-1/2 x 7-1/2 inches

Gretel García Everything Is Nothing In Your Eyes2008 White plexiglass 30 x 48 inches

Luis Gispert Nothing (Director’s cut)35 mm color 28 min.Edition: 1/50

Ahmed Gómez Salome 2010 Acrylic on canvas80 x 76.5 inches

Juan-Sí Gonzalez A-Isla-Miento2002 Photo on paper (tryptich)14 x 18 inchesNote: 18 inches tall 42 inches long

Hugo Michel Hernández Untitled2009 Oil on canvas48 x 60 inches

Silvia Lizama Construction II. Fort Lauderdale, FLFrom the series “Miami, I-95”1990 Hand colored black/white photograph22 x 24 inches

Silvia LizamaPalmetto Extension IVFrom the series “Miami, 1-95”1994 Hand colored silver gelatin print15 x 15 inches

Silvia LizamaPalmetto Extension IFrom the series “Miami, I-95”1988 22 x 24 inches

Guido Llinás For R. Motherwell1992 Oil on canvas47 x 47 inches

Rubén Torres Llorca Trojan Horse2008 Mixed media32 x 16 x 12 inches

Rubén Torres LlorcaMaximum Intensity of Emotions2004 Mixed media30 x 46 x 6 inches

Connie LloverasShedding the Suit of Armor 1995Mixed media on clay44 x 31 x 13 inches

Alfredo Lozano Gordian Knot 1973 Bronze on marble base 12 x 18 x 9 inches

Rogelio López Marín (Gory) Andy Warhol from the series An American Dream1998 - printed 2003 Toned gelatin silver print 16 x 20 inches Edition: 3/25

Rogelio López Marín (Gory) I Saw Her Standing There from the series An American Dream 1994 - printed 2003 Toned gelatin silver print 16 x 20 inchesEdition: 1/25

Rogelio López Marín (Gory) James Dean from the series An American Dream 1991 – printed 1995Toned gelatin silver print16 x 20 inches

Alonso Mateo Silla con pie equino2007 Mixed mediaDimensions variable

Alonso MateoSilla #22007 Mixed mediaDimensions variable

Alonso Mateo3 Pañuelos2007 Mixed mediaDimensions variable

Aldo Menéndez La reina del edén o caída de casi todo 2006 Acrylic on canvas59 x 64-3/4 inches

Eduardo Michaelsen Abakuá 2002 Oil on canvas24 x 30 inches

Kikiribú Mandinga2002 Oil on canvas24 x 30 inches

Beatriz Monteavaro Every Inch of You I Prize 2005Ink on paper15 x 11 inches

Beatriz MonteavaroBut Perfection is so Dull2005 Ink on paper15 x 11 inches

Beatriz MonteavaroThat’s the Way the Honey Goes2005 Ink on paper15 x 11 inches

Beatriz MonteavaroI Want to Kiss You2005 Ink on paper15 x 11 inches

Heriberto Mora Oreja de corcho sobrevive maremoto verbal 1997 Oil on canvas 71 x 71 inches

Heriberto MoraHacia nuevo puerto2005-10Sculpture/InstallationWood46 x 9 x 7 inches

Gean Moreno Untitled2008 Mixed media24 x 18 inches

Glexis Novoa 76#29B06 Buena Vista 1993-94 Pencil on canvas 60 x 110 inches

Glexis NovoaCalling Card (El Hombre Nuevo)2008Graphite on marble36 x 25 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja 1Cradle songs2007 Mixed media on paper4.4 x 5 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja2Hot – Dead – Artist2007Mixed media on paper4.4 x 5 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja3Communication breakdown2006Mixed media on paper4.4 x 5 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja4Me verás pero no me cojerás2007Mixed medium on paper4.4 x 5 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja5Boxing – jihad – ventriloquist2007Mixed media on paper4.4 x 5 1/1 inches

Jorge Pantoja6D.P. – Double axe – September2007Mixed media on paper4.4 x 5 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja7Sol – da – di –to2007Mixed media on paper4.4 x 5 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja8Coins – crab – island2007Mixed media on paper4.4. x 5 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja9Toyotaton – nite reader2006Mixed media on paper4.4 x 5 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja10Por una cebolla2006Mixed media on paper4.4. x 5 ½ inches

Jorge Pantoja11Rafflesia – models – pollinators2007Mixed media on paper4.4 x 5 ½ inches

Raúl Perdomo Like ants on a rubber rope2009 Mixed media on canvas50 X 33. 25 inches

Emilio Pérez Squeeze Your Knees (blue/green)2003 Acrylic and latex on enameled board with resin60 x 48 inches

Mario Petrirena Yes2005 Photo, found objects101 x 13 x 2 inches

Segundo Planes Convencional divisiónOil on canvas1984 160 x 350 cm.

Rafael López Ramos Untitled No. 41996-98Mixed media on paper 20 x 14 ½ inches

Cristina Lei Rodríguez Mountain Fortress 2004 Mixed media 51 x 22 x 20 inches

Bert Rodríguez Where I Need Most Cheering Up 2005 Luz dorada de neón intermitente con tans-formador y montada sobre plexigás 20 x 40-3/4 x 3 inches

Lydia Rubio Barco de aire - Dyptich1995 Oil on wood42 inches

Lydia RubioBarco de aire - Dyptich 1995 Aluminum sculpture 34 x 48 x 8 inches

Baruj Salinas Two Clouds 1993 Acrylic on canvas 68 x 96 inches

Yolanda Sánchez Whirling on the Fine Line 2009 Oil on canvas62 x 70 inches

George Sánchez-Calderón Black Galleon 2009 Acrylic, glitter, matte medium on paper/tape8 x 12 feet

Paul Sierra Lost Steps 1992 Oil on canvas54 X 70 inches

Rafael Soriano Recuerdo Idealizado 1984 Oil on canvas50 x 60 inches

Leandro Soto Diaspora2002 Wood, rope acrylicVariable dimensions

Leandro SotoHeredia’s Dream 1998Acrylic on canvas36 x 36 inches

César Trasobares Columnar2004-2010 Mixed media construction with printed actual dollar bills18 x 18 x 91 inches

Marcos Valella 1981 2004 Mixed media on canvas 72 x 60 inches

A.R. Vapor 30 Días2003 Stainless steel1-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches

Pedro Vizcaino Ganguero2009 Oil stick on canvas 82 x 115 inches

Ramón Williams Open Mongo Napoleón 1997-2005 DVD 53 min. Edition: 1/3

Ramón WilliamsThe Dream from Mongo’s StoriesPhotography30 x 34 inches

Ramón WilliamsLas Tablas2000-2005Oil on canvas38 x 51 inches

THE COLLECTORSArturo F. Mosquera, D.M.D., M.S.

runs one of Miami’s most celebrated practices in orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics. At the age of nine he and his family fled the communist take over in his native Cuba. Growing up in exile, Dr. Mosquera would eventually channel his passion for his native country, and his love of art, into the creation of a major art collection. Dr. Mosquera and his wife Liza Mosquera, have turned his of-fice into one of Miami’s hot new alternative spaces for exhibitions, installations and performances. A graduate of the prestigious Schools of Dentistry and Orthodontics at the Universities of Florida and Tennessee, and a recipient of many awards and distinctions in his profession and specialty, Dr. Mos-quera has been involved in many humanitarian and philanthropic causes. His wife, Liza is a native of El Salvador and has been the office manager of her husband’s orthodontic practice for over 25 years. She is a devoted mother who loves cooking, reading and hiking. The couple currently live in Coral Gables, Florida with their three children.

Dr. Arturo and Liza Mosquera

Photo credit (pg. 150)Pedro Portal

THE CURATORSDUO NOSTICristina Nosti has over 25 years of experience in South Florida as an arts administrator, grant writer, publicist, and coordinator of cultural events and programs. A graduate of the University of Miami’s School of Communication, she is currently the Director of Events & Marketing at Books & Books, an independently-owned bookstore that is nationally-recognized for its author event series. Before joining Books & Books, Cristina was the development manager at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami where she wrote grant proposals in support of exhibitions, educational initiatives and community programs. Prior to that, she served as the general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department at Miami-Dade College, Wolfson Campus, under the direction of Olga Garay. From 1990-94, she served as Executive Director of the Cuban Museum of Arts & Culture, a non-profit organization that made headlines during the 80s and 90s for exhibiting the work of artists still living and working in Cuba. She has also worked in the television industry and at Columbia Pictures Studios in Los Angeles, California. Her parents are Cuban and she grew up in Coral Gables, Florida. A practicing Buddhist, she now lives near the ocean in Key Biscayne, Florida.

Vivian Nosti began her career in the arts in her early twenties in the theater as a costume and produc-tion designer. She attended Parsons School of Art and the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Since then, she has worked for numerous theater companies, including the Acme Acting Company and Taller del Garabato, as the resident Designer. She has collaborated with actors, directors and writers on numerous projects, including the groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed play A Scarlet Letter -- a curated art show and play that had its run at the Cuban Museum of Arts & Culture. She has worked in the fields of fashion and television and has been involved in film as a Production Designer. She is currently working as a freelance curator and art consultant and writes about art and culture for print and on-line magazines. She lives in Key Biscayne, Florida where she is working on a memoir of her life.

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Acknowledgements—

Catalog and website design: Lemon Yellow

After-Party Sponsored by:The Betsy Hotel1440 Ocean Dr Miami Beach

www.mosqueracollection.com

© Mosquera Collection

Exhibition on View—Wednesday, October 8 through Sunday, November 7, 2010

The Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College600 Biscayne Boulevard, MiamiFree and Open to the Public

For More Information Contact—Art Gallery System at 305-237-7700or galleries@mdc.edu