Exhibition Detail

Liliam Dooley, Libertad Para Luis Manuel (Freedom for Luis Manuel), 2021, digital poster. Courtesy the artist

Cuba Dispersa (Cuba Dispersed)

A Modernist Regime: The Contemporary Cuban Lens
July 11, 2024 - September 1, 2024
Larson Gallery

As part of A Modernist Regime: The Contemporary Cuban Lens, the exhibition Cuba Dispersa (Cuba Dispersed) features six artists and designers—Julío Llopíz Casal, Liliam Dooley, Anet Melo Glaria, Celia González Álvarez, Hamlet Lavastida, and Ernesto Oroza—that respond to the current conditions in Cuba. As of now, none of the artists live in Cuba, with some forced into exile. Over the past few years, the Cuban government has launched a campaign to suppress the artistic community and control creative production through official legislation, such as Decree 349, in an attempt to quell the outpouring of anti-government artwork and music. The exhibition features six new commissions that use their individual practices to mine these design and material histories to elucidate the past and imagine potential futures. As co-curator Abel González Fernández explains, “When looking at Cuba, we must recognize our fascinating, tragic, elegant, and complex Cuban history. What are we going to keep? We may not have a land for all Cubans to be reunited now because of the dictatorship, but we have a shared memory that unites us.”  

Cuba Dispersa (Cuba Dispersed) and Marco Castillo: The Hands of the Collector are complementary presentations that serve as a contemporary response to the historical survey, A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design, also on view at the museum.

A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design and A Modernist Regime: The Contemporary Cuban Lens are organized by Cranbrook Art Museum and curated by Abel González Fernández and Laura Mott, Chief Curator, with Andrew Satake Blauvelt, Director, and Andrew Ruys de Perez, the Jeanne and Ralph Graham Curatorial Fellow. The exhibitions are generously supported by the Gilbert Family Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Clannad Foundation, the George Francoeur Art Museum Exhibition Fund, Marc Schwartz & Emily Camiener, Karen & Drew Bacon, Jennifer & Brian Hermelin, Kelsey & Evan Ross, and ArtMembers of Cranbrook Art Museum.

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