Holy Cross' Cantor Art Gallery Presents 'Layers: Collecting Cuban-American Art'

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross presents Layers: Collecting Cuban-American Art from Jan. 11 to Feb. 13, 2007. The exhibition, co-sponsored by the Holy Cross Latin American and Latino Studies Concentration, illustrates how Cuban American artists have negotiated their identities.

Layers: Collecting Cuban American Art is comprised of selections from three contemporary art collections, two private and one university collection. More than 40 works in painting, sculpture, photography and video by well-known and emerging artists will be featured in the exhibition, including works by María Brito, Emilio Falero, Alberto Rey, Paul Sierra, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Maria Martinez-Cañas, Ana Mendieta and others.

A series of events in conjunction with the exhibit will be held at the Cantor Art Gallery on Jan. 24:

• 4-5 p.m. Gallery talk, “Identity in Art,” by Jorge J.E. Gracia, Samual P. Capen Chair and distinguished professor in the department of philosophy at State University of New York at Buffalo. • 5:30-6p.m. Curator’s overview with Lynette Bosch, professor of art history at SUNY, Genesco. • 6 p.m. Exhibition reception.

Exhibition organizer Bosch says in her introduction to the catalog, “This exhibition brings attention to the practice of collecting art as a means of discovering identity. The paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and video included in it indicate some of the range of style and visual presentation found in Cuban-American art.”

The exhibition not only brings together important examples of work by a group of leading contemporary artists but it also examines how both individuals and institutions can develop collections that provide both personal pleasure and scholarly benefit. The lenders to the exhibition include: Bosch, who has been actively supporting research and exhibitions on contemporary Cuban-American artists since the early 1990s; and Gracia, who like Bosch, has collected work by a large number of Cuban-American artists both for personal pleasure and as a adjunct to his philosophical and scholarly interests.

The third collection represents selections from the Lehigh University Art Galleries collection of Latin American photography and video. Ricardo Viera, director of the Lehigh Art Galleries, began actively collecting Cuban-American photography-based art in the mid-1970s. Since that time, under Viera’s leadership, the Lehigh University Art Galleries has become one of the leading collections of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino art.

Layers: Collecting Cuban-American Art was organized in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Humanities and presented as part of the seminar, “Negotiating Identities in Art, Literature and Philosophy: Cuban Americans and American Culture,” held this past summer at SUNY Buffalo, and co-directed by Bosch, Gracia and Isabel Alvarez-Borland, professor of modern languages and literatures at Holy Cross. The seminar focused on cultural identity in art, literature and philosophy for Cuban-Americans. The exhibition was sponsored by the University of Buffalo at SUNY Art Gallery.

In his forward to the catalog, Gracia explains that the idea to gather together a group of scholars to explore the questions of personal and ethnic identity was the rationale behind the NEH seminar. The seminar assembled 15 faculty members from colleges and universities across the nation who came together to explore the ways in which social groups, and in particular Cuban-Americans, have worked out their various identities. The exhibition also illustrates how Cuban-American collectors of art have negotiated their own identities as collectors.

Gallery Information

The hours for the Cantor Art Gallery are Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Saturdays, 2 - 5 p.m. Located in O’Kane Hall, First Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, Mass, 01610. Admission to the gallery is free. Public parking is located on Linden Lane, gate 2, off College Street.

As announced last month, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation made an unprecedented $1 million commitment to the art gallery at Holy Cross. The College will raise an additional $600,000 in matching funds in connection with this gift. The Cantor Foundation gift will be the largest ever received by the College’s art gallery which was established by and named for the Cantors in 1983.

For more information, call the Cantor Art Gallery at 508-793-3356 or visit the Gallery’s Web site.