Cuban Art

I'm in Florida for a few days, and of course Florida and all things Cuban are now tied together. Reading the Dec. 25, 2006 issue of Business Week. On page 116: "Art's New Frame of Reference," retired real estate investor, Howard Farber starting buying contemporary Chinese art a decade ago. Now, he recommends work by Indians, Russians, Polish, Cuban and Chinese artists. Here the Cuban part:

"These artists may get a boost from the expected opening of Cuba after Castro's demise... Cuban artists such as Armando Marino, 38 who lives in Spain have little auction history and sell for under 12K. To learn about this market, pick up a copy of Cuba: Avant-garde:Cuban Art from the Farber Collection (Harn Museum of Art, $29.95) coming out in March.... Pieces of his collection will be featured in a show at the University of Florida at Gainesville on May 29th.

A few years ago I co-curated and helped to introduce contemporary Cuban art to the Greater DC area art region with an exhibition titled "De Aqui y de Alla" (From Here and From There). It was an exhibition of Cuban art by Cuban artists and artists of Cuban ancestry from around the world and not only did the exhibition sell out, but it also yielded several key shows by the gallery, which picked up representation of many important Cuban artists since then. Two of the hottest ones, Sandra Ramos and Aimee Garcia Marrero will be showing at Fraser this coming May.