Tomorrow is the 3rd Friday of the month, which means that the Canal Square Galleries will have their new shows opening. Catered receptions are from 6-8 PM.

We will host the American gallery solo debut of Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, considered by many to be among the leading contemporary Cuban artists in the world.

Unfortunately, in an event that made international news, Ramos was denied a visitor's visa to attend the opening, and despite generous assistance from Senator Paul Sarbanes, she was unable to get one on time and will not be able to attend her first gallery solo show in the US.

In this exhibition, titled "Sea of Sorrows" by Ramos, we will have on display several of her calcography prints from the series that first attracted world attention to her work - they deal with many taboo subjects of daily social life in Cuba: exile, migration, racism and economic issues. Also on exhibit will be four new oil paintings created specifically for this show as well as a brand new series of manipulated digital prints - the first ever by Ramos. About these she has written:

"Sea of Sorrows continues a very marked line in my work, related to migrations. This series emphasizes the thesis of the shipwreck as one of the most recurrent events in the life in the contemporary society, in any place of the world where the space among the dreams, aspirations and men's utopias become more and more distant illusions. Physical shipwreck, sentimental shipwreck. Economic shipwreck, political shipwreck.

Here I use again the pioneer girl character, (a sort of self-portrait: symbol of the innocence and the idealism,) locating her in marine and urban landscapes and in situations of a poetic subjectivity, where to escape seems to be her only objective.

In my work the sea has been a recurrent symbol because I try to respond the question of what we are, to define the Cuban being and capture the essence of our cultural and social history. In this search the sea becomes the natural element that by drawing the shape of the island, defines the personality of the creatures that inhabit it. The sea and the island form an inseparable unit that defines the history of the Cubans."

See you there.