16 May 2012

Sandra Montenegro Contemporary Art: Escaping with the Landscape

Sandra Montenegro Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the opening of Escapando con El Paisaje (Escaping with the landscape), a collateral exhibition to the 11th Havana Biennial.

'In Cuba, the verb to escape has a meaning that is related to surviving from something that is shady, illegitimate, abnormal. Escaping with the landscape -in the most cynical sense- could be interpreted as an easy way of extracting a profit or a benefit and at the same time it could be construed as escaping; running away with it, forming an ironic wordplay which ultimately can be understood as mankind escaping from itself into another nature invented by it.

In this sense, the title becomes a trap, since the contemporary visualization of the exhibit demonstrates that landscapes can be created in accordance – or not – with the genre, as it is traditionally understood. In all cases, it is ultimately about the empathy and commitment of the creators with the environment in an almost pantheistic manner.' Explains the exhibition curator, Elvia Rosa Castro.

Escaping with the landscape includes installations, videos, paintings, frescoes and light boxes. In this sense it is a versatile, fresh and visually appealing exhibit. It also has a strong somatic content, based on gesture and sensuality.

Exhibiting artists include: Bogota based, Miler Lagos, Angelica Teuta, Adriana Salazar, Alexandra McCormick, Saul Sanchez, Rodrigo Echeverri, Luisa Roa, and Lia Garcia; Miami based, Rafael Domenech and Juan Carlos Zaldivar; and, Havana based, Elizabet Cerviño, Marianela Orozco, Ernesto Javier Fernandez, Jose Manuel Mesias, Luis Enrique Lopez, Rafael Villares, Yornel Martinez, Ernesto Garcia, Ernesto Quintana, Adonis Flores and Osy Milian.

The Havana Biennial, established in 1984, is an international contemporary art event. On its 11th edition, from May 11 to June 11, it presents the topic Artistic Practices and Social Imaginaries to group the event's exhibitions and conferences. For additional information: www.biennialfoundation.org/biennials/havana-biennale/

Sandra Montenegro Contemporary Art is a pop-up gallery that presents emerging artists from Bogota, Miami, and Havana. The gallery focuses on subjects such as femininity, migration, nature, and the acceptance of the absurd. Nothing is impossible in Latin America, and nothing is impossible in art. Tel. 305-542-2322 / www.sandramontenegro.com