The Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami (1301 Stanford Drive, Miami, Florida) presents Cuban art (1822 – 2022) in simultaneous exhibitions that constitute a comprehensive staging of Afro-Cuban art. “El pasado mío / My Own Past: Afrodescendant Contributions to Cuban Art” and “Afrocubanismo: Highlights from the Ramón and Nercy’s Cernuda Collection” are both curated by Alejandro de la Fuente, Director of the Afro-Latin American Research Institute (ALARI) at Harvard University. They bring together works by 44 Cuban artists of African descent spanning two centuries. The exhibitions are on view through September 12, 2026.
Here are excerpts from an essay by arts critic Irene Sperber:
“To educate is to give man the keys to the world” – José Martí
Walk into the generous open galleries of University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum with its serenely lit walls and halls for a summer respite. [. . .]
Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami presents 200 Years of Cuban Art (1822 – 2022), a “landmark exhibition.” (Harvard University’s organizers chose the Lowe Museum for the exhibition’s second showing).
Cambridge, Mass., has been the only previous venue for this remarkable unveiling of one hundred works from 58 artists, all of Afro-Cuban descent. A group kept in the shadows of the art world, these artists are shown together for the first time. How is it possible to form intelligent and comprehensive ideas, avoiding a skewed notion of the world and our place in it, if all people are not represented in the full story? Lowe’s is prepared to fill in many knowledge gaps.
These two special exhibits complete a “don’t miss” moment: El PasadoMio/My Own Past: Afrodescendant Contributions to Cuban Art, and Afrocubanismo: Highlights from the Ramón and Nercy’s Cernuda Collection are both curated by Alejandro de la Fuente, Ph.D., and the Director of Harvard’s Afro-Latin American Research Institute. Fuentes notes that “Afrocubanismo was a transformative moment, producing some of the most beautiful pieces of visual art in Cuban art history. An exhibition like this, one that centers that particular moment in time, has never been done.” [. . .]
Artist Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), of African and Chinese descent with a Cuban mother of Congolese and Spanish background, had been influenced by Picasso. Lam, exposed to many cultural upheavals in his life, became one of the more revered Cuban artists of Modernism. He had a commanding godmother who was a powerful priestess, influencing Lam with her visual language and Santoria. Lam’s work comes up in several eras on these walls.
The exhibition covers, among many, works from a contemporary movement termed Los Carpenteros [sic, Los Carpinteros] (1992-2003) blending architecture, design, and sculpture. A large piece by Alexandre Arrechea hangs in the Lowe Museum permanently. Known for his murals on the Underline in Miami and twenty-blocks of large sculptures on Park Avenue (NYC), Arrechea addresses power, hierarchy, surveillance, control, prohibition, and subjugation in his work.
Many of the earlier Afro-Cuban artists represented here had minimal exposure in their time, some ended up dropping out. A book de la Fuente, is titled “My Own Past, Afrodescendants Contributions to Cuban Art,” a comprehensive tome available in the gallery to scan during your visit. It is written along with Cary Aileen Garcia Yero and published by Cambridge University Press if you want to dive deeper into this fascinating subject.
Several artists depicted here taught or studied at Havana’s Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, the oldest and most prestigious fine arts school in Cuba, not to mention all of Latin America. [. . .]
Read more at https://www.miamiartzine.com/Features.php?op=Article_Lowe+Art+Museum+at+UM+Presents+Powerful+200+Years+of+Cuban+Art
Also see https://www.timeout.com/miami/things-to-do/200-years-of-afro-cuban-art-at-the-lowe-art-museum and https://www.lowe.miami.edu/exhibitions/on-view/index.html
[Shown above, photo by Irene Sperber: Alexandre Arrechea, (Ink on Wood), “Cantor, Truth and Lies, Sound of Seas.”]
The Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami (1301 Stanford Drive, Miami, Florida) presents Cuban art (1822 – 2022) in simultaneous exhibitions that constitute a comprehensive staging of Afro-Cuban art. “El pasado mío / My Own Past: Afrodescendant Contributions to Cuban Art” and “Afrocubanismo: Highlights from the Ramón and Nercy’s Cernuda Collection” are both curated by
