Cuban Art & Artists in “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA”

The first ‘LA’ is Los Angeles. The second is Latin America—all of it, including the Caribbean. And the US.

With more than 70 exhibitions and events in Southern California museums from San Diego to Santa Barbara, this Getty-led initiative is the most sustained, in-depth survey of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino/Chicano art that US museumgoers are likely to see.

Here’s our guide on where to find Cuban art, artists, and exhibitions in “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA.”

CURRENTLY ON VIEW

LACMA, Los Angeles. Home—So Different, So Appealing. This wide-ranging group show explores he idea of home from a Latin American and Latino perspective. Artists on view include Luis Cruz Azaceta, Félix González Torres, and María Elena González.

Through October 15.

Muzeo, Anaheim. Deconstructing Liberty: A Destiny Manifested.

US concepts of liberty and its importance are explored in video, photography, performance, and installation art by 14 artists, including Ángel Delgado, Reynier Leyva Novo, Carlos Martiel, and Ángel Ricardo Ricardo Ríos.

Through October 15.

OPENING SUNDAY, AUGUST 20

Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena. Hollywood in Havana: Five Decades of Cuban Film Posters Promoting U.S. Films.

Some 40 hand-silkscreened posters reflect Cubans’ abiding love of classic US films. If you missed our preview walk-through last week, catch it here.

Through January 7.

OPENING IN SEPTEMBER

September 9: Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles. Cuba Is.

More than 120 contemporary and historic images by an international roster of photographers explore the complexities of Cuban life on the island and beyond. Cuban photographers include Raúl Cañibano, Leysis Quesada Veyra, Geandy Pavón, Alexis Rodríguez Duarte & Tico Torres, René Peña, Ernesto Oroza, and Linet Sánchez, among others. The show was organized by independent curator and scholar Iliana Cepero. As of this writing, the opening reception on Friday evening, September 8, is already at capacity. The show opens to the public on Saturday, September 9.

Through March 4.

September 9/16: Torrance Art Museum, Torrance. The Cuban Matrix.

The show presents contemporary Cuban art with an emphasis on the island’s informal digital media exchange—like the paquete seminal, the weekly terabyte of information and entertainment shared throughout the island.

Artists include Ariamna Contino, Alejandro Figueredo Díaz-Perera, Jorge Otero Escobar, Diana Fonseca, Alexander Hernández, Tony Labat with Juan Carlos Alom, Francisco Masó, and Esterio Segura.

On the PST: LA/LA website, and on the museum’s own website, the opening date is officially September 9, but the museum website also gives the opening as September 16, which is the date of the reception, which runs 6–9 p.m.

Through November 4.

September 10: Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Condemned to Be Modern.

Taking an architectural approach to contemporary art, the show explores the connections between modernist architecture and political ideologies, social values, and contemporary realities. Also examined: the role of government and public policy in the development, preservation, and use of the built environment. The international roster of 21 artists includes Alexandre Arrechea, Felipe Dulzaides, Carlos Garaicoa, and Manuel Piña. The opening reception runs 2–5 p.m. on Sunday, September 10.

Through January 28.

September 15: The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985.

In this 25-year period, women throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and Latina/Chicana women in the US produced art that was rigorously experimental, politically engaged, and often created under extreme sociopolitical conditions.

“This exhibition is about making visible an entire chapter in art history that has been made invisible,” co-curator Cecilia Fejardo-Hill told The Art Newspaper. With 260 works in photography, video, installation, and other media by more than 100 artists from 15 countries, Radical Women traces that hidden but influential history.

Cuban artists in the show are Antonia Eiríz, Ana Mendieta, Marta María Pérez, and Zilia Sánchez.

Through December 31.

September 15: California African-American Museum and Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles. Circles and Circuits I and II.

At the California African-American Museum, part I of this exhibition explores the history and art of the Chinese Caribbean diaspora; part II at the Chinese American Museum surveys contemporary Chinese Caribbean art.

Artists in the show include María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Flora Fong, Li Domínguez Fong, Liang Domínguez Fong, Wifredo Lam, José Antonio Choy López, and Katarina Wong.

Through February 25 at the California African-American Museum.

Through March 11 at the Chinese American Museum.

September 16: Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. The Metropolis in Latin America, 1830–1930.

A historical look at the transitions undergone by 6 major cities in Latin America, including Havana. Photographs, prints, plans, and maps trace urban evolution from colonial city to republic, and the impact of rapid industrialization, commercialization, and other social and political trends.

Through January 7.

September 16: Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach. Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago.

Organized into four themes—Conceptual Mappings, Perpetual Horizons, Landscape Ecologies, and Representational Acts—the exhibition features painting, installation work, sculpture, photography, video, and performance art by more than 80 artists with roots in the region.

After its run at MOLAA, the exhibition will travel to museums in New York, Miami, Portland, Maine, and Wilmington, Delaware.

Artists in the show include Tania Bruguera, Juana Valdés, Ibrahim Miranda, María Elena González, María Martínez-Cañas and Kim Brown, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Glenda León, Carlos Martiel, Yoan Capote, Humberto Díaz, Quisqueya Henríquez, Marianela Orozco, Manuel Piña, Antonia Wright, Glenda Salazar Leyva, and Guerra de la Paz.

Through February 25.

September 17: LA><ART, Hollywood. Video Art in Latin America.

Immersive video art installations and three galleries’ worth of single-channel videos—more than 60 works in all—trace the evolution of video as an art medium through themes like Defiant Bodies, Economies of Labor, and Memory and Forgetting. As this story went online, Glenda Léon was the only Cuban artist we could confirm as being in the show, but there are undoubtedly more.

Through December 17.

September 17: LACMA, Los Angeles. Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915–1985.

Cuba is not a topic here, but Cuban-born designer Clara Porset is. Porset began her career on the island before moving to Mexico, and her work there has only recently come back into the spotlight.

Through April 1.

… AND IN NOVEMBER

November 30: The Music Center, Los Angeles. Cuba: Antes, Ahora / Cuba: Then, Now.

Music and the performing arts jump into the picture with this 4-day event headlined by Malpaso Dance Company performing to live music by Arturo O’Farrill. Other events on the program feature tres player Pancho Amat, rapper Telmary Díaz, and percussionist Yissy García and her group Bandacha. Afro-Cuban drumming and dance workshops will be held out of doors in nearby Grand Park.

Through December 3.