Illustration Biennale Closes at Gallery in Alamar, Havana

Regina Cano

HAVANA TIMES — The 10th Los Puentes Illustration Exhibition, dedicated to the 85th anniversary of poet and artist Fayad Jamis, closed this past November 19 at the art gallery and cultural center that bear the name of this renowned poet.

This biennale gathers visual artists who wish to exhibit works related to published literary pieces and/or that could be used to illustrate these.

The works of fourteen artists were selected for this year’s biennale. An award was granted Raul Meriño for the Metaphorfosis, inspired by Frank Kafka’s novella. Belonging to a series titled Cuerpos Mutantes (“Mutant Bodies”) and materialized using mixed media on cardboard, the piece combines the artist’s own hairs and ink to give life to horrifying and mysterious figures, deconstructing and reassembling these, not as Kafka would have imagined them (perhaps) but in a modern context.

On this occasion, the jury was made up by three visual artists: Pedro Roig, Carlos Gonzalez and Amilcar Rodriguez. The jury bestowed two honorary mentions on participating artists, one for Bailes (“Dances”), by Ricardo Orta Allende, inspired by Samuel Feijoo’s Baile sin cabeza (“Headless Dance”), a mixed media piece very close to Miro, particularly the use of primary colors and some black outlines (with a more figurative approach) and the other for Niños empinando globos de preservativos (“Children Flying Condom Balloons”), by Pedro Pablo Bacallao, inspired by Jules Verne’s Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen, a mixed media piece. According to a gallery curator, Bacallao is a member of Cuba’s Art Brut movement.

Pedro de Oraa, Francisco Rafael Paneca, Hanna Chomenko, Carlos Alpizar and Ventura Gonzalez were among the eight artists invited to participate at the Biennale.

Another mention was awared Ihosvani Hernandez’ La Olla (“The Pot”), based on Fayad Jamis’ poem of the same name, also done on cardboard.

It is worth mentioning that this gallery is the central space of the Fayad Jamis Cultural Center, located at the Alamar Cultural Center, on the eastside of the capital, which saw its glory days in the 1980s and its decline in the 90s. This cultural center was once a beacon of culture in general, the cradle of a number of important community projects and a source of inspiration for many visual artists – a project that has been gradually damaged by many changes that have taken place in the country.

The Erotic Art Exhibition is another important event organized by the gallery.

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