With many exhibitions to report, we’ve divided this month’s Update into 2 parts. Today, the latest news from the island and around Europe; next week, what’s happening in the US, including awards, fellowships, and other news.

José Manuel Fors was one of the pioneers of the Cuban contemporary art renaissance, participating in the groundbreaking 1981 exhibition Volume I. Now, the Havana artist is showing his work for the first time in Miami, at Pan-American Art Projects in Winwood.

The exhibition Art x Cuba: Contemporary Perspectives since 1989 opened last month at the Ludwig Forum Aachen in Aachen, Germany. In an email interview, co-curators Andreas Beitin and Tonel (Antonio Eligio) talked about the show and the trajectory of contemporary Cuban art.

Earlier this month, Adonis Flores: Malos Pasos (Missteps) closed at Havana’s Galería Habana. Here’s a quick photo walk-through of the exhibition—including one of the most memorable artworks to appear during the soccer-mad World Cup season.

This week, we expanded our Biennale focus to Cuban artists in exhibitions outside the Cuban Pavilion, with a look at the Latin American Pavilion. Today, we wrap up our Venice coverage with Personal Structures and the virtual exhibition Balconism.

Among women artists, Aimée García Marrero is a rara avis. Although her poetic oeuvre has lately become a space for confrontation and a distinctive discourse within the feminine gaze, she says this development hasn’t been deliberate. Though it reflects a distinctly female identity, she tells journalist Maya Quiroga Paneque, "My work has nothing to do with feminism."

In last week’s Latin American sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York, key figures in Cuban and Latin American art achieved new sale records.

In person and on film, musician/composer Chucho Valdés was a fixture of this year’s Havana Film Festival New York, as Cuban films took many top Havana Star Prizes. Nadine Covert has the wrap-up on the 18th HFFNY.

In “Interior Museums,” Carlos Garaicoa, René Francisco, and four other acclaimed artists reflect on Cuba and Cuban identity, while “Island of Sugar” explores the impact of one industry on the island’s history and culture. At the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, curator Corina Matamoros guides us through the exhibitions.