New York Art World Makes Historic Flight South to Havana Art Biennial

Agence France-Presse reports that American art dealers may be moving faster than President Obama to reestablish relations with Cuba. The tenth Havana Biennial, which begins March 28, will welcome three hundred artists from fifty-four countries—including some galleries from the US.

Painting from “Spirit, Nature and Heads” by Cuban painter Manuel Mendive; Cuba NewsThe biennial—which addresses the theme of “integration and resistance in the era of globalization”—coincides with the exhibition’s twenty-fifth anniversary. “It’s about dialoguing and debating this phenomenon,” the president of the biennial, Ruben del Valle Lantaron, told AFP, adding that the event would include theoretical conferences.

Twenty-eight US art galleries have been invited to show at the Havanna Binnial, in a presentation “Chelsea visits Havana”, organized by New York art dealers Alberto Magnan and Dara Metz and including major figures in the art world like dealers Andrea Rosen, Sean Kelly, Barbara Gladstone, Mary Boone, Matthew Marks and art collectors Ron Pizzutti and Howard Farber.

Organizers of the show, in New York and Cuba, agree that this cultural exchange would not have been possible under the Bush administration, which tightened the trade embargo around Duba in 2004. The decision effectively ended all travel-related cultural exchange programs between the two countries and prevented Cuban artists from attending exhibitions or claiming prizes and fellowships in the US.

This past week, at least 10 groups from museums like the Bronx Museum and El Museo del Barrio in New York secured humanitarian visas so they could fly into Havana.

With a fresh wind blowing in Washington, artists hope for a more fertile exchange of ideas in the future.

Sandra Caballos, Anti-Insider?

Sandra Ceballos by Sven Creutzmann/Mambo Photo/Getty Images for The Wall Street JournaFeaturing the Havana Biennial, the Wall Street Journal reports that many art insiders will be stopping by the home of Sandra Ceballos, who manages one of the few art galleries in Cuba, not funded by the government.

Art professionals say her gallery, run out of her apartment, is nurturing some of the country’s most cutting-edge local talent at a time when Cuba is positioning itself as the next hotbed for contemporary art. Ms. Ceballos was among the first to exhibit Cuban art stars like Carlos Garaicoa, Angel Delgado and Tania Bruguera, whose works are highly sought after by major institutions like the Tate Modern in London.

Ceballos has mounted a show behind her iron gate at Calle 6, No. 602, called “La Perra Subasta,” or “The Auction of the Big Dog,” a group show for artworks that contain letters or words.

A source of controversy in a soft-glove, boxing match with the Cuban government, Ceballos seems bored by her role in the degate, according to WSJ: “I’m not interested in pushing the political. That’s for politicians. I’m just interested in defending the artists.” She says she neither seeks political art for shows nor filters it out.

We’ll follow this story as the exhibition opens. Anne

Untitled piece by Alberto Casado, on display at Aglutinador, an alternative art space in Havana.