| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
March Issue 2008
Avery Research Center in Charleston, SC, Features Cuban Art Exhibition
The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC, will present the exhibit, Beyond the Door, the conjunction with the first Charleston International Arts Festival. The exhibit, on view from Mar. 13 through Apr. 26, 2008, will include approximately 50 museum quality artworks of various mediums from internationally renowned Cuban artists: Jorge Perugorría, Alejandro Alazo, Jose Fuster, Joel Jover and Reinaldo Lopez. All the works will be available for sale, and the organizers hope to welcome Jorge Perugorría in Charleston during the festival.
Perugorría is not only a renowned artist, but also an award-wining Cuban actor. His movie Strawberry and Chocolate, the first Cuban film to be nominated for an Oscar (Best Foreign Language Film of 1995), won honors at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. Jose Fuster, one of Cuba's most important ceramists and painters, is well-known to an American viewer from Michael Moore's movie Sicko as he hosted Moore and his group for a lunch at his whimsical studio near Havana.
The objective of the exhibition is to present living artists from Cuba and the hardships that they have to overcome on daily basis in order to create their masterpieces, from making their own paper to preserving traditional values of the nation such as Santeria. Santeria, a westernized interpretation of ancient Yoruban tribal practices, is reflected in several works that will be presented at the exhibition. African slaves, forced into the outward practice of Christianity, blended their traditional practices with elements of Christianity, often identifying Christian Saints with the Yoruban Gods.
The festival, designed to reopen the door and answer countless questions that Americans have about isolated Cuba, will offer a more detailed insight into Cuban life through a series of lectures, movie premiers, and music performances. The festival will uncover what is hidden behind the closed door of the embargo during lectures on Latin American and Cuban art, and Cuban culture.
The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture at the College of Charleston was established in 1985. The mission of the Avery Research Center is to collect, preserve, and document the history and culture of African Americans in Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry.
The arts festival, presented by Rebekah Jacob Modern and the Simatai Marketing Group LLC, was established as an outcry of Charleston's residents for diverse international cultures that other metropolitan cities are exposed to on daily basis. The mission of the festival is to feature a new country every year and bring a variety of visual and performing arts as well as series of lectures in order to widen horizons of interested public.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Center at 843/953-7609 or visit (www.cofc.edu/avery)
or visit (www.charlestoniaf.com) for more information about the
festival.
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.