Blog, Work of the Week

Work of the Week: Emilio Sanchez, “Untitled, Blue House with White Shutter, St. Barts”

Sanchez was born in Cuba, to a wealthy family that was involved in the sugar trade. Like other members of Cuba’s pre-Revolutionary upper class, he was mostly educated in the United
States. After a few years in Florida, he made his was to the Northeast, where he overlapped at Choate with future President John F. Kennedy. After college (Yale followed by the University of Virginia), he studied at the Art Students League, splitting his time between his father’s estate in Cuba, his mother’s residence in Mexico, and New York. He also traveled throughout the Caribbean, gathering subject material for his prints and paintings depicting the bright sunshine and vernacular architecture of the region.

Read More
Blog, Work of the Week

Work of the Week: Rafael Trelles, “La autopista del sur (The Southern Highway)”

At its simplest definition, Magical Realism is a genre of art (including visual art and literature) characterized by the inclusion of fantastical elements or events in an otherwise realistic setting. The term was most famously first applied by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier to describe what he saw as a growing trend in Latin American literature of the time, and is most famously associated with Latin American art. Although Magic Realism is often labeled as Surrealism, the key difference is that Surrealism is based in images of the subconscious, of dreams, and Magic Realism deals in, well, reality.

Read More
Blog, Work of the Week

Work of the Week: Antonio Martorell, “¿Quéslaque? Es que la…”

Antonio (“Toño”) Martorell (born 1939) is a Puerto Rican multi-media artist, educator, and writer, and a pillar of Caribbean contemporary art history. An intellectual, an artist of artists, and an artist of and for the people, Martorell‘s prolific body of work spans over six decades, consistently making references to the histories, diversity and resilience of Puerto Rican culture in face of adversity.

Read More