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Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Hosts “Cuba Ocho,” an Exhibition Focusing on Cuban Art and Identity

EUGENE, Ore. -- (October 27, 2016) –  “Cuba Ocho,” an exhibition featuring work by seven contemporary Cuban artists that explore Cuban history through their provocative and politically charged works and a team of artists who created a stamp book about the revolution for children, is on view at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the University of Oregon campus.  Organized by Jill Hartz, JSMA executive director, and Amelia Anderson, a second-year MA graduate student in art history, the exhibition is on view through February 19, 2017. 

 

On Wednesday, November 9, Hartz and Anderson will lead a tour of the exhibition at 5:30 p.m.

 

Artists featured include Miguel Couret, Alejandro Gonzalez, Aimeé Garcia Marrero, Ibrahim Miranda, Cirenaica Moreira, Elsa Mora, and René Peña, as well as group of artists, writers and designers who collaborated on a “stamp” book about the Cuban Revolution as an educational tool for children. Most of the works on view were acquired by Hartz during her fourth visit to Cuba, during the 2015 Havana Biennial.

 

”Ever since my first trip to Cuba in 1999, I’ve had a passion for contemporary Cuban art,” says Hartz. “The sophistication of subject matter and technique combined with the particular challenges of living and working in Cuba have resulted in highly original and powerful artworks that continue to reflect and respond to the challenges facing this beautiful Caribbean nation today.”

 

Most of the artists featured in the exhibition began their careers during the “Special Period,” an era influenced by the economic and cultural crisis following the departure of the Soviet Union as Cuba’s primary trade and military partner in the early 1990s. Consequently, ttheir work fuses the portrayal of their own identities with that of their nation’s history. Humor, pathos, and irony are all present, often simultaneously, in their expressions of an erratic and surreal Cuban reality.

 

“Researching the artists, their works, and Cuban history changed the way I view what is currently happening with Cuban-U.S. relations,” says Anderson. “These artists critique their country's history through their bodies and identities, which I think the JSMA audience will find fascinating and enlightening.”

 

About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art

The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art based in a major university setting. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public.  The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, the Americas and Europe as well as changing special exhibition galleries.  The JSMA is the only accredited academic art museum in Oregon.

 

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.

 

About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

 

Contact:
JSMA: Debbie Williamson Smith, 541-346-0942, debbiews@uoregon.edu

 

Links: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu