Exhibitions – Caribbean Cultural Institute

Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

Mariano Rodríguez. *Pescador* (Fisherman), 1955. Oil on canvas. Collection Fundación Mariano Rodríguez © Fundación Mariano Rodríguez

Mariano: Variations on a Theme
August 5, 2022 – January 22, 2023

Mariano: Variations on a Theme marks the first solo exhibition in the United States of works by the artist Mariano Rodríguez (b. 1912, Havana; d. 1990, Havana). This exhibition expands the artist’s known body of work, demonstrating how Mariano’s dedication to lo cubano (the essence of Cuban experience) and his evolving interests in modes of artistic expression from other parts of the world positioned him as a painter of universal consequence.

Mariano’s career spanned six decades of the twentieth century—almost the duration of Cuban modernism. Contextualizing the scope of Cuban modernism in relation to aesthetic movements in the Americas and Europe is fundamental to understanding Cuban artists’ quest for creating national artistic identity on the island. Mariano’s Cuban iconography particularly glorified el gallo (the rooster) and embraced other recurring motifs including guajiros (peasants), fruits, vegetation, and the marine world. In exploring variations on these themes, Mariano forged a distinctive aesthetic that incorporated other art historical styles, in turn, Geometric Abstraction, Abstract Expressionism, and figuration. By introducing the “grotesque” in his fantastic or distorted figures in dark settings, Mariano demonstrated virtuosity in hybridity, signaling a new postmodern orientation of Cuban art.

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich: Too Bright to See

April 13, 2023–January 7, 2024

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich (b. 1987) is a filmmaker and artist whose work blends narrative and documentary traditions to explore stories and experiences of Black women in the Americas. Hunt-Ehrlich’s experimental narrative artworkToo Bright to Seedraws on her extensive research on the legacy of Suzanne Roussi-Césaire, a writer and anticolonial and feminist activist from Martinique who, along with her husband, Aimé Césaire, was at the forefront of the Négritude movement during the first half of the 20th century. Roussi-Césaire would also become an important Surrealist thinker, influencing the likes of painter Wifredo Lam and writer André Breton. However, despite her critical contributions to Caribbean thought and Surrealist discourse, until recently much of her work was overlooked.

Too Bright to Seeweaves archival materials with cinematic narrative scenes filmed with an unconventional and modern cast. Drawing inspiration from Caribbean aesthetics and Surrealist artwork, this film installation brings attention to new aspects of Roussi-Césaire’s legacy that are undocumented in the public arena, while addressing the broader question of the continued erasure of women from historical accounts.

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich: Too Bright to See is organized by Iberia Pérez González, Andrew W. Mellon Caribbean Cultural Institute Coordinator, in the Bank of America Gallery. Ongoing support for PAMM’s project galleries from Knight Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.