Layered Lives: The Art of Nine Contemporary Cuban Women from the Discoveries in Art - Certilman Family Collection at AMOA -Amarillo Museum of Art. Texas. Jan 18- March 23, 2025.
https://www.amoa.org/layered-lives
Curated by Arianne Faber Kolb, Ph.D
Participating artists are: Ariamna Contino, Aimée García Marrero, Rocío García de la Nuez, Alejandra Glez, Elsa Mora, Mabel Poblet Pujol, Sandra Ramos, Adislen Reyes, and Linet Sánchez Gutiérrez.

Exhibition by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles CA.

Cuba has a rich history of women artists who have made significant contributions to the country’s vibrant and diverse art scene. The artworks on view in this exhibition were created during the past 30 years and feature a selection of nine contemporary artists: Ariamna Contino, Aimée Garcia Marrero, Rocío García de la Nuez, Alejandra Glez, Elsa Mora, Mabel Poblet Pujol, Sandra Ramos, Adislen Reyes, and Linet Sánchez Gutiérrez. These women have explored various artistic mediums, styles, and themes, often breaking boundaries and challenging societal and political norms. Through different strategies and symbolism, they convey their anxieties, dreams, and visions, often quite literally weaving together histories about themselves and their homeland.

Sandra Ramos. Cultivando Milagros / Growing Miracles. 1996. Etching, aquatint print on cotton paper.50 x80cm / 31” x20”

Growing miracles is part of a series of seven etchings & aquatint engraving titled ‘The Dollarization” that I created in 1996. In this series, my main concern was the consequences of the dollar's introduction into the Cuban economy in 1994, during the “Special Period," when the collapse of the Soviet Union as Cuba’s patron left the country in the most critical economic situation in its history. The prints provide satirical commentaries on tourism, the greed for money, prostitution, and Cuba’s cyclical patterns of dependence and colonization.
In this image, the pioneer girl who symbolizes my generation and Liborio who incarnated Castro’s generation are trying to grow a Money Tree, while El bobo (the fool) is trying to sow in the sea.
I have created numerous engravings featuring a central character: a girl whose image merges my self-portrait with an old 19th-century print. Dressed in a red pioneer uniform meant for elementary school students, this girl comments on Cuba’s history through humorous stories highlighted by texts. In this series, I also include classical characters from notable Cuban political caricatures, such as Liborio and Abela’s Fool, which symbolize the Cuban people during the Republic.

Sandra Ramos. Alejandro. 1993. Etching, aquatint print on cotton paper. 50 x 40 cm.

Alejandro (1993) is an engraving from the “Migrations Series”. This is an autobiographical series in which I collect memories of some of my best friends who left Cuba in the early 90s to emigrate to other countries. In the series, each title is the name of one of them Wendy, Alejandro, Maribel, and the main themes are the feeling of loss, sadness and grief that this separation produces. Furthermore, in these engravings I focus on imagining their lives, their problems as new emigrants and my dreams and desires to travel abroad and be with them again. These pieces were created at a time when communication and travel to and from Cuba were very difficult, which is why they reflect the isolation and estrangement caused by migration and the social and economic crisis in Cuba in the 90's.
Alejandro was my partner from 1986 to 1992, when he emigrated to Italy and after settled in Venezuela. The piece is an image of young love frustrated by separation and the pain of migration.

Sandra Ramos. Tornado. 2009. 27/30, Etching, aquatint print on cotton paper. 50 x 80 cm / 31” x 20”

The 2009 Tornado print depicts characters that I often develop in my works to represent various aspects of Cuban history and culture: Liborio (Castro), the pioneer girl (an alter ego representing Cubans born after the revolution), Abela's Bobo (a Cuban caricature from the 1930s republic), the bureaucrat with a head shaped like a Rubik's cube, and the Jinetera (Cuban prostitute). In this work, all these figures are swept away by a vast whirlwind, symbolizing the need for change and the emergence of a new generation to realize fresh visions for Cuba's future.

Sandra Ramos. La caja de Pandora / Pandora box. 2012. 5/30. Etching, aquatint print on cotton paper. 50 x 100 cm / 39” x 20”

Pandora's Box is an etching that I created in 2012 as part of the “Mythological Series”, that humorously alludes to the Greek myth of the same name, which explains how all evils were released due to Pandora's curiosity (represented here by the pioneer girl), leading to human mortality. When Pandora realizes what is occurring, she attempts to close the box before everything escapes, locking hope inside as the only thing we humans cannot lose. In this piece, I adapt the myth to reflect the political situation in Cuba, emphasizing the urgent need for political and economic change, and the openness to democracy and improved U.S.-Cuba relations as the sole solution to the financial crisis and uncertainties facing the island’s future.
@sandramosart