El Negro de Oro
(The Black Man of Gold)
June 10 - June 23, 2020
Galeria Cubana has long been committed to cultural diversity and stands in support of people of African descent worldwide. As such, we believe it is imperative to open our summer season with the virtual exhibition El Negro de Oro (The Black Man of Gold). This exhibition features the works of three Afro Cuban artists: Yasser Garcia Rittoles, Israel Moya and Isolina Limonta. It offers a mixture of paintings, prints and drawings, ranging on the subjects of race, spirituality and nature.
Yasser G. Rittoles challenges the viewer to delve deeply into the construct of race and its impact on justice and discrimination. Rittoles has an incredible ability to render emotion and illustrate internalized struggle in his self-portrait series. His figures are full of motion as they fight to emerge from the background amidst a haze of muted color and line.
Her 13th year with Galeria Cubana, Isolina Limonta is known for her distinctively embossed, hand embellished collograph prints.
Limonta invokes an earthly spirituality—one expressed through land, nature and the environment. Limonta's sense of spirituality and connection to nature resonate in each piece. Both sources she believes also connect each of us to one another.
Israel Moya is new to the gallery’s roster of artists. At 33 years old, Moya's work is primarily inspired by the blending of the African and European religions in Cuba. His paintings veer toward the more conceptual with surreal aesthetics, referencing texts of the Yoruba religion, of West African origin. The majority of his works are primarily portraiture in this exhibition, specifically etchings in a hyper realistic aesthetic.
