Update: Esquivel in Spain, Getting “Real” in Tokyo, and Debating “God or Devil?” in Havana

Alexis Esquivel in Spain. The artist’s first solo show in a European museum is now on view at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Contemporaneo (CAAM) in Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island. Curated by Suset Sánchez, Alexis Esquivel: Memorial Garden surveys Esquivel’s recent experiments with history painting. In his hands, this “big” genre—traditionally linked to an idealized notion of the nation-state—becomes a fragmented, destabilized ground for post-colonial redefinition. Through May 25.

The Marvelous Real in Tokyo. Anthony Goicolea, Carlos Garaicoa, and Django Hernández are among the 27 artists featured in the show currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. The Marvelous Real: Contemporary Spanish and Latin American Art from The MUSAC Collection celebrates the “400th anniversary of Japan-Spain relations;” the works on view hail from the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC). On view through May 11.

Congratulations to Duvier Del Dago, who recently wrapped up an artist’s residency at L’Atelier Calder in Saché, in France’s Loire Valley. Del Dago presented his work at an open studio show on Saturday, March 22. Felicitaciones!

“God or Devil?” A discussion in Havana. In connection with its current exhibition, Dios los cría(God Created Them), Factoría Habana will present a panel discussion on the theme “God or Devil? The figure of the artist as curator and commissioner.” Speakers will include René Peña, curator of the exhibition, as well as artist Humberto Díaz, and curator and art historian Hilda María Rodríguez. The event is presented by Factoría Habana’s Laboratorio de Idea and—marking its 80th anniversary—the Department of Art History at the University of Havana. Tuesday, April 1 at 2 p.m., Factoría Habana.

Our America comes to Miami. Last fall’s big show at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art is headed to the Frost Museum, where it opens next Wednesday, April 2. The festivities kick off at 4 p.m. with a lecture by E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, followed by an opening-night reception from 6 to 9 p.m. The show runs through June 22. And a note for May: on May 14 at 4 p.m., a panel of Miami artists in the show—María Brito, Arturo Rodríguez, and María Martínez-Cañas—will talk about their work.

What Images Can Do in Miami.  The Art Media Gallery in Wynwood is hosting this first solo photo show by curator and critic José Antonio Navarrete. What Images Can Do: Photographs by José Antonio Navarrete is conceived as a philosophical inquiry and a single photographic installation, which juxtaposes images according to a certain discursive logic. According to Navarrete, “what images can do” is intimately linked to how they are organized and the contexts in which they are presented. A photo-tour of the show is available on the gallery’s website. On view through May 4.

Permission to be Global in Boston. Last week saw the opening of this group show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which had a quick premiere in Miami during Art Basel last December. Permission to be Global/Prácticas Globales: Latin American Art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection features 61 artists from Central and South America and the Caribbean. On opening day, however, Lázaro Saavedra was not one of them. Scheduled to present the debut performance of his work Funerary Egocentrism—which had been previously prohibited by Cuban authorities—Saavedra was held up by visa delays. He will perform the work—which involves him lying in his own casket—at a later date. (Check the MFA Boston website for details.) Other Cuban artists in the show include Ana Mendieta, Wilfredo Prieto, and Yoan Capote. On view through July 13.

Rafael Soriano in Southern California. At the Long Beach Museum of Art, the 41 new works in Enriching and Engaging – Selected Recent Acquisitions includes a painting by Rafael Soriano. The 1992 canvas Añoranza Idealizada is the first Soriano to join a California museum collection. “For us it is thrilling to have a new audience viewing and experiencing his work,” said Hortensia Soriano, the artist’s daughter. “The work has a certain ethereal quality that I believe is a perfect fit with such a majestic state as California.” Enriching and Engaging runs through June 15.

Save the Dates. Coming up later this spring: Caribbean: Crossroads of the World opens at the Pérez Art Museum Miami on April 18… and Teresita Fernández: As Above So Below, the artist’s first major museum show in New England, opens at MASS MoCA on May 24.

And for your video viewing pleasure… Carlos A. García de la Nuez is an artist of the Eighties Generation, who from the start of his career has conducted a sustained investigation into abstraction. Pausas, a 26-minute documentary by Margarita Hernández, a former curator of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and for many years a brasilera, explores the artist’s creative impulses and the context in which he produces his intensely personal work. Find the video—with English subtitles—here on Vimeo, and enjoy.

Media Watch: Michael Jackson’s son on trip to Cuba. Making the rounds of U.S. public-relations websites: news that the late Michael Jackson’s son, known as Prince, is on a school trip to the island. It might have escaped everyone’s attention if Prince himself hadn’t posted a photo on Instagram of himself holding his plane ticket.