Jose Figueroa and Cristina Vives - Miami Beach at Design Within Reach

Start: Sep 28 2010 7:00 pm

Join us for the multimedia and bilingual evening with acclaimed Cuban photographers Jose Figueroa and Cristina Vives at our neighbors, Design Within Reach. Making his first visit to the United States in nine years, Jose Figueroa brings us Jose A. Figueroa: A Cuban Self-Portrait, edited by Cristina Vives. For more than four decades, Jose Figueroa (born 1946) has chronicled his nation's trials. Too young to have seen the Revolution, Figueroa belongs to a generation that was, nonetheless, old enough to witness this seismic shift in his nation's infrastructure. A Cuban Self-Portrait describes Cuba's singular character. Its 380 photographs provide an unique glimpse for Cubans inside and aboard. Cristina Vives' new work is Belkis Ayon: Nkame. This catalogue raisonne provides a complete account of the life and work of Cuban artist Belkis Ayon (1967-1999). Working through the worst years of Cuba's post-Soviet economic crisis, Ayon developed her engraving and serigraph technique using collaged paper, and mined Afro-Cuban religious traditions to create an independent and powerful visual iconography. The Abakua religion and secret society were a source of great inspiration for Ayon, and "Nkame" -- a word of praise and salutation in the Abakua language, pays tribute to an artist whose death left behind a message of life.