Images from the ISLAND
Exhibit looks at Cuba through a photographer’s lens
Frilled in their tutu finery, two young ballet dancers stretch and pose atop a crumbling rooftop on a disheveled Cuban street.
The photograph by Leysis Quesada Vera captures her daughters rehearsing in their disintegrating concrete backyard.
“The contrast is shocking,” gallery owner Stuart Ashman said. “How they enjoy this high level art experience in this environment?”
The photographer is one of the Cuban artists showing their work in “Foto Cuba” on view at Artes de Cuba Gallery in Santa Fe through April 29.
The gallery is the creation Ashman, former International Folk Art Market chief executive officer.
His motives mix the commercial with compassion.
“I’ve been going to Cuba since 1997,” said Ashman, who grew up there, “and developing relationships with all these artists. The economy is so bad there that any amount of money we can bring to them would be appreciated. They understand the
importance of having a market in the U.S.
“The U.S. has Cuba listed as a sponsor of terrorism,” he continued, “so there are sanctions there; there’s no banking. The Trump administration made it so that Americans can’t stay in hotels in Cuba. The whole thing affects the people; it doesn’t hurt the government. Finding food there is a battle; the stores have nothing on the shelves.”
When Ashman travels to the island, he brings goods commonplace to American stores: things like aspirin, shampoo and toothpaste stuffed into a 45-pound suitcase.
The gallery owner has known Cuban photographer René Peña since 1997. Peña uses his own body in all of his work.
His print “Tutú” asks questions of sexuality and
gender issues.
“Some of it takes on Blackdom, on slavery, but ‘Black Is Beautiful’ at the same time,” Ashman said.
In “Sin Titulo,” he captures himself bending his head to kiss an outstretched hand.
The collaborative team Liudmila y Nelson combines archival photographs of Havana buildings with sly billboards speculating upon what capitalism might bring.
The pair added advertising billboards for Nikon and other products to a massive, scaffolded building. Another is emblazoned with the word “Revolution.”
“He’s kind of cynical about it,” Ashman said.
Cuba has served as a nucleus of photographic activity since the middle of the 19th century. Photography in Havana dates to 1840, a scant few
years after the invention of the medium in France. By 1910, Havana boasted more photography studios than Paris and New York combined.
Early Cuban photography included family portraits and shots of famous personalities, sports events and landscapes. In the 1920s and ’30s photojournalism emerged as an important component of the genre, which continued throughout the history of the revolution. In the 1970s and ’80s it grew into a medium for artistic expression.
Ashman hopes the gallery will help to educate New Mexicans about Cuban culture.
“Maybe 40% (of the sales) are from friends who want to support the effort,” he said. “The question is how we get this beyond Santa Fe.”