The third world vocation of Cuba's visual arts marked the beginning and the end of the year 2022. On the one hand, the culmination of the 14th edition of the Havana Biennial on April 30; and on the other, the commemoration of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Cuba's most universal painter, Wifredo Lam.
The Biennial was attended by 655 artists, 171 of them foreigners from different countries of Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, but also from Europe and the United States, with actions that took place both in the Cuban capital and in Pinar del Rio, Holguin, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritus and Matanzas.
An important theoretical event was dedicated to Lam this December, which highlighted the greatness of the Cuban artist, while the National Museum of Fine Arts gathered in the exhibition Lam Indivisible a total of 69 paintings, drawings and engravings by the artist.
Throughout the year, the visual arts received in our archipelago a new and necessary vital impulse, since in the preceding stage the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic limited the exhibition activity and artistic exchanges.
Several territories of the country resumed their agenda of events, such as Mayabeque, Holguin, Matanzas, Las Tunas, Ciego de Avila, Santiago de Cuba, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara. The latter two have held events that are representative of popular art. When the Photographic November event was reinstated, the call for the first edition of Fotonoviembre was highlighted in Matanzas.
The institutional promotion of the new values of the national visual arts once again had a privileged space in the collective contest Post-It 9, with the presence of 30 projects selected for exhibition at the Galiano Gallery.
The National Council of Visual Arts (CNAP) favored the exhibition itinerary inside and outside the country, among the first ones, Word, Image and Possibility, 70 images revealing Fidel's relationship with Cuban and foreign artists and intellectuals, and Che photographer, an artist called Guevara, with images captured by Che himself.
In the international arena, Cuba participatedin the 59th edition of the Venice Biennial, with works by Rafael Villares and Kcho, among other important events.
Other events included the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Havana Experimental Graphic Workshop, in Cuba and Spain, and the impact of significant commemorative exhibitions such as Antonia on paper, which highlighted the work of Antonia Eiriz on that support, and Marcelo Pogolotti, the cycles of History, which, at the 23 and 12 Gallery, honored the 120th anniversary of the birth of the remarkable artist.
Meanwhile, at UNEAC's Villa Manuela Gallery, Rolando Estévez, José Omar Torres, Osmeivy Ortega, Elvis Cellez, Alfredo Sosabravo, 1997 National Plastic Arts Award winner, exhibited their works, and the year ends with the exhibition El caos y los hijos de la bestia (Chaos and the children of the beast), by Ángel Ramírez.
Visual artist Flora Fong was awarded the 2022 National Plastic Arts Award.
Translated by ESTI
