February 26 - March 30, 2005
Tue-Sat, 12-4 pm; Wed 12-6 pm
Fine Arts Gallery, Fine Arts Bldg, Free
Opening Celebration: Saturday, March 5, 2005
Information: 415/338-6535

ARTISTS
José Julián Aguilera, Joel Aguilera Tamayo, Raúl Alfaro Torres, Belkis Ayón, Diana Balboa, Choco (Eduardo Roca Salasar), Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy, Nelson Domínguez Cedeño, Alexis Esquivel
Roberto Fabelo, Ramón Haití Eduardo, Jorge Knight Vera, Miguel Ángel Lobaina, Raúl Martínez, Manuel Mendive, Ibrahim Miranda, José Omar, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Armando Posse, Rafael Queneditt Morales, Mauricio Reyes Aranda, Arnaldo Rodríguez Olazábal, Elio Rodríguez Valdes, Israel Tamayo Zamora, Rafael Zarza.

This exhibition presents the first opportunity for US audiences to see close to four decades of artistic production shaped by the influential forces of AfroCuban religion, contemporary social issues, questions of cultural heritage, and personal and diplomatic relations with Africa. Representing the work of 26 artists residing in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, AfroCuba includes 60 prints and drawings masterfully executed in a variety of techniques, among them lithography, collagraph, woodcut, screen print, and ink and crayon drawing.

Organized by the Fine Arts Gallery under the direction of curator and art historian Judith Bettelheim, PhD, a scholar of the African Diaspora, the exhibition includes a catalog with essays by Dr. Bettelheim, an invited essay by Cuban artist and curator Alexis Esquivel, and excerpts from David Mateo’s Looking at Cuban Printmaking (Havana 2001). Cuban artist and critic Tonel (Antonio Eligio Fernández) served as curatorial consultant.