Featuring the work of 19 different artists this multi-generational survey showcases contemporary Cuban artists.

*Photo above: Diana Fonseca

June 7 to November 4

Cubans: Post Truth, Pleasure, and Pain is one of the first exhibitions in our region that examine contemporary Cuban artists, both inside the island and the diaspora. Featuring the work of 19 different artists this multi-generational survey showcases well-known and emerging painters, sculptors, photographers, videographers and multi-media installation and performance artists. There is not just one kind of Cuban art, and the multi-faceted and complex issues facing all artists are just as relevant to Cubans and Cuban-Americans. Guest curators Elvia Rosa Castro and Gretel Acosta have gathered introspective voices, political shouts, hedonisms, rudeness, foreign languages spoken with good accents and marginal cubanisms. Visitors to this bilingual exhibition will encounter a range of works of art from provocative, sociological and documentary style, to depictions of strong sensuality, to conceptualism. A younger generation of Cuban artists comment on issues like the dominance of technology and industrial design and use a subjectivity that works against the traditional Western lenses of binary thinking and power, gender, race, and immigration issues.

*Click the DOWNLOAD INFO button at the bottom of the page to get an interactive catalog for this exhibition. 

Exhibition Programs:

34,000 Pillows Project

The 34,000 Pillow Project is a national response to immigrant detainment by artists Alejandro Figueredo, featured in the exhibition Cubans: Post Truth, Pleasure and Pain, and Cara Megan Lewis (together known as Díaz Lewis). The artists in partnership with community participants, WFU students and faculty, Sawtooth artists, and SECCA will create pillows from donated clothing from undocumented immigrants and their allies to form a collective patchwork of individual experiences.

Pillow Project Dates:

Wednesday, September 19

Thursday, September 20

Friday, September 21

Saturday, September 22

Talk @ SECCA: Jose Bedia and Alejandro Figueredo

Cuban Artists José Bedia and Alejandro Figueredo will discuss their work in the exhibition Cubans: Post Truth, Pleasure, and Pain and participate in a moderated conversation about artistic practice, particularly its cultural, political and social aspects.

Talk @ SECCA: Cuban Dispora

Please join us for a panel discussion on the Cuban Diaspora and how it echoes throughout the world. Panel Participants include writer Cristina Garcia, artist Geandy Pavon, Orlando Justo, Associate Professor of Business, Finance, and Marketing at Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York (BMCC/CUNY), and Wake Forest University Associate Professor Linda S. Howe.

Performance @ SECCA: Yali Romagoza

As part of the exhibition Cubans: Post Truth, Pleasure, and Pain, New York City-based Cuban multimedia artist Yali Romagoza will present her performance piece, "Monument to a Great Living Artist" in the galleries at SECCA. As Cuca-the-Cuba-Doll, Romagoza strikes poses on a pedestal to a recording of her own voice reciting fragments from Linda Nochlin's feminist essay "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" (1971).

Artists in this exhibition:

José Bedia, Ariel Cabrera, Celia & Yunior, Rafael Domenech featuring Ernesto Orozo, Alejandro Figueredo, Diana Fonseca, Aimée Garcia, Rocio Garcia, Luis Garciga, Juan-si González, Manuel Mendive, Carlos Montes De Oca, Geandy Pavón, René Peña, Carlos Quintana, Sandra Ramos, Grethell Rasúa, Yali Romagoza