Gestures of Faith in Contemporary Cuban Art

Responding to locally practiced religions and spiritual traditions like Catholicism, Santeria, and Spiritism, as well as the after-effects of Marxist ideology, Cuban artists have long searched for alternate spiritual paths. The country is not officially aligned with any one religion, and the contemporary artists of the island continually question and present new forms of deities and spirits to help visualize more open religious and political possibilities.

Images of hands recur as a theme throughout the gallery, from Ernesto Pujol’s Relic to Armando Mariño’s Shaman 2 and the dancing figures in Manuel Mendive’s paintings. The hand suggests worship, humility, and the act of offering—in other words, a signifier of spiritual belief in action. Sandra Ramos’s circular collages link the heart and mind, a nod to Buddhist meditation practices. Pujol’s collages, photographs, and sculptures convey the subjugation of both practitioners and clergy in Catholicism.

Carlos Estévez’s Flujos cosmotelãoricos (Cosmo-Telluric Flows) reads as both a mudra (a ritual gesture) and a map of energy currents above and below the earth’s surface, real and imagined. Artworks by Adonis Flores, Lázaro Saavedra, and Glexis Novoa echo symbolism found in the Rubin Museum’s collection of Himalayan art.

Curated by guest curator Sara Reisman