The University of Oregon is holding an art exhibition featuring Cuban artists depicting the history of oppression and misery that is the reality of Cuba’s daily existence.
Artists put Cuba’s painful history of suppression on display with new exhibit
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art will show pieces from 19 influential Cuban artists
Last week, while the majority of campus was on break, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art unveiled “Diaspora, Identity, and Race: Cuba Today.”
The exhibition features new works from contemporary Cuban artists who focus on issues of racism, homophobia and other problems occurring in Cuban society that have been silenced by the Cuban government over the last few decades.
Remaining on display until June 21, the exhibition’s main purpose is to give current Cuban artists a platform to express their feelings toward the state of the country. After the Cuban revolution in 1959, the government officially declared that issues of racism, sexism, prostitution and poverty had all been solved. In reality, many of these problems persisted. Because of the government’s claims, many of these topics were taboo to talk about. The art featured in the Schnitzer exhibit is a representation of the artists’ feelings and emotions of growing up in a society where addressing such issues was strongly discouraged.
“Only recently in the past 20 or 30 years have artists started to come forward and discuss these issues openly in their work and sometimes to very severe punishments,” said Ashley Gibson, exhibit curator.