Late last week, the Trump administration announced that it would be re-abnormalizing the relationship between the United States and Cuba. A few days earlier, El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan opened “NKame: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón,” reminding us exactly how much we have to gain from a free exchange of cultural energy with our island neighbor.
Ayón was born in Havana in 1967 and died there, by her own hand, in 1999. As baffling and crushing as her end was, her life and career had been warm with forward motion. She began studying art at 12, went on to the renowned Instituto Superior de Arte, and joined its faculty after graduation. She began exhibiting in Cuba, and word went out. Invitations for exhibitions and residencies took her to Europe, Japan and North America.
Full article at The New York Times
July 22, 2017
