Curated by Olga Viso, curator-at-large at PhxArt and senior advisor at ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, and Julio César Morales, executive director and co-chief curator of MoCA Tucson.
ARTISTS: Alexis Leyva (Kcho), Sandra Ramos, Aimee García Marrero, Belkis Ayón, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Abel Barroso, Jacqueline Brito, Yamilys Brito, Los Carpinteros, Carlos Estévez, René Francisco, Luis Gomez, Carlos Martiel, Filiberto Mora, Kadir Lopez Nieves, Fernando Rodríguez, Antonio E. Rodríguez (Tonel).
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https://phxart.org/exhibition/lo-que-es-es-lo-que-ha-sido/
Phoenix Art Museum and ASU Art Museum partner to premiere exhibition of contemporary Cuban art
“Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/What it is, is what has been” presents works from the ASU Art Museum collection to complement the major exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América
PHOENIX (January 30, 2023) – This spring, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) and Arizona State University’s Art Museum (ASU Art Museum) will present Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/What it is, is what has been: Selections from the ASU Art Museum’s Cuban Art Collection. The exhibition represents the first major collaboration between the two arts and cultural institutions and draws exclusively from ASU Art Museum’s signature collection of contemporary Cuban art to complement the special-engagement exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América, organized by El Museo del Barrio and the first retrospective in more than 30 years to explore the career of the late Cuban artist Juan Francisco Elso. The selection of works provides rich context for understanding the social and political context in which Elso’s art emerged in 1980s Communist Cuba and focuses on a period in Cuban history that characterized the decades of the 1990s known as the “Special Period.” Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/What it is, is what has been will be on view from May 6 through September 17, 2023 in Steele and Rineberg galleries at Phoenix Art Museum.
“We are very excited to collaborate with ASU Art Museum to bring works from their incredible collection to our galleries here at Phoenix Art Museum,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum. “This exhibition is a way for our audiences to gain deeper insight into not only the legacy of the visionary artist Juan Francisco Elso but the impact of contemporary Cuban artists on our global understanding of Cuba’s political and social landscapes. PhxArt’s partnership with ASU Art Museum is a wonderful example of how cross-institutional partnerships within the Valley can create these types of dynamic opportunities for our diverse communities to engage with art from around the world and gain new perspectives. We look forward to more collaborations like this with ASU Art Museum and many others of our peer institutions.”
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Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/What it is, is what has been: Selections from the ASU Art Museum’s Cuban Art Collection features some of the ASU Art Museum’s most iconic artworks, offering audiences an opportunity to learn about Cuba’s “Special Period in Times of Peace” (the “Special Period”), a term
coined by Fidel Castro. The period in Cuban history extended from the early 1990s through the mid-2000s, encompassing the decade following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, which brought an end to communism in Western Europe and the Russian economic subsidy of Cuba. It was marked by severe food and material shortages—only exacerbated by U.S.-imposed trade embargoes that continue to this day. The island also saw the exodus of hundreds of thousands of citizens from the island, with refugees fleeing on make-shift rafts across the treacherous straits between Cuba and the United States to seek political asylum.
Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/What it is, is what has been is curated by Olga Viso, curator-at-large at PhxArt and senior advisor at ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, and Julio César Morales, executive director and co-chief curator of MoCA Tucson. Viso joined PhxArt in 2022 as a member of the Museum’s senior executive team, responsible for curating original exhibitions, overseeing artistic commissions, and serving as a mentor to curatorial staff. Artworks featured in the exhibition comment on the struggles of daily subsistence during the “Special Period,” as well as the tragedy of the balseros (rafters) crisis. Exhibition highlights include:
Kcho’s makeshift kayak perched on a sea of precarious sea bottles in Para Olvidar (in order to forget) (1996)
Sandra Ramos’ painted suitcase from the series Migrations II Swimming Under the Stars (1994), which depicts two figures bobbing in the dark open waters with dreams of freedom
Aimee García Marrero’s sculpture Bajo Presión/Under Pressure (2002), featuring a bold “X” on surface of a pressure cooker in reference to public protests in which women used pots and pans as percussive objects to demand food from the Cuban government
A lithograph by Belkis Ayón that explores artist censorship and attacks on personal freedoms.
Other featured artists are Luis Cruz Azaceta, Abel Barroso, Jacqueline Brito, Yamilys Brito, Los Carpinteros, Carlos Estévez, René Francisco, Luis Gomez, Carlos Martiel, Filiberto Mora, Kadir Lopez Nieves, Fernando Rodríguez, and Tonel.
Presented in Steele Gallery and the Museum’s Katz Wing for Modern Art, the exhibition complements the major Steele Gallery exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América, the first retrospective on the late artist’s work in more than 30 years. Por América provides a rare opportunity to experience Elso’s fragile extant works that explore a trans-American identity and worldview free of geopolitical borders and nations, and with Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/What it is, is what has been placed in proximity to the major exhibition, audiences will be able to draw comparisons between works from the ASU Art Museum collection and Elso’s sculptural works, revealing not only the artist’s deep impact on generations of Cuban artists from the 1990s but how contemporary Cuban artists continue to grapple with similar societal restrictions and forms of repression that defined the “Special Period.”
“In 2018, Cuba established Decree 349, which legislates creative expression and controls artistic content,” said Viso. “The title of this exhibition—Lo que es, es lo que ha sido/What it is, is what has been—echoes a common sentiment among the Cuban populace of making due with what lies ahead (it is what is is). These words also poignantly acknowledge that very little has changed in regard to scarcity and civil liberties in Cuba since the ‘Special Period’ commenced more than 30 years ago.”
ARTISTS TALKS: FILM SCREENING + TALK: SANDRA RAMOS | PROYECCIÓN CINEMATOGRÁFICA + CONVERSACIÓN: SANDRA RAMOS. Whiteman Hall. Wednesday, June 21 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Presented in Whiteman Hall
TICKETS: Free for Members | $5 for the general public
Discover the life and practice of Cuban contemporary painter, printmaker, and installation artist Sandra Ramos, who explores nationality, gender, and identity in her work by drawing from her own experiences living in and migrating out of Cuba.
At 6 pm, join PhxArt for viewings of eight animated short films by Ramos that examine the complexities of daily life, migration, and gender politics in Cuba during the Special Period. Ramos created the series in the years leading up to her 2014 exile. In them, the protagonists imagine many pathways to survive and escape.
Following the screenings, hear from the artist in conversation with Olga Viso, exhibition curator of Juan Francisco Elso: Por América and PhxArt curator-at-large and senior advisor on curatorial affairs, and Julio César Morales, executive director and co-chief curator of Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson
