Rafael Villares

Portland has had its typical sleepy January start but Intersecciones: Havana/Portland at Lewis and Clark College's excellent Hoffman gallery looks like the official kickoff to an exciting 2016. The exhibition explores contemporary art in Cuba through the way 6 Cuban artists approach the Oregon trail as cultural ambassadors. It has been over half a century since relations between USA and Cuba have been normalized so this exhibition is a kind of document of emergent familiarity/unfamiliarity.

According to the Press release: "Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo creates installations and public actions that poke at the troubled cultural space for people of African ancestry. Reynier "El Chino" Novo's reimagined cultural objects reveal the depleted energy of true political action. Elizabet Cerviño's spare performances draw from the haunted contradictions in historic spaces. Adriana Arronte's installations of exquisitely crafted glass, plastic, and metal objects complicate spaces of personal consumption. Rafael Villares's displaced landscapes create tensions between desire and reality. Yornel Martínez’s alternative magazines provide manuscripts for artist exchange.

When the idea to curate a show of Cuban artists first emerged, we had no inkling of the historic change about to take place between the two countries. We happened to be in Havana on the day that President Obama met with Raúl Castro and announced he would take Cuba off the terrorist list. This provides the backdrop for Intersecciones. In the US public imagination, Cuba is either a Communist failure or a victim of US imperialism."

Intersecciones: Havana/Portland | January 28 - March 13, 2016
Opening Reception: January 28, 5 - 7PM
Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art
Lewis & Clark
0615 S.W. Palatine Hill Road MSC 95