Preview: Cuban Art at the Armory Show

This week sees the opening of the 2017 Armory Show on Thursday—and with it, a raft of additional fairs and events. Here’s a quick guide, in alphabetical order, to some of the top spots to see Cuban art, including a couple of satellite fairs.

At the Armory Show…

Galería Casado Santapau. The Madrid-based gallery is bringing works by Alexandre Arrechea, including the painted construction Mapa del silencio (Box), 2017. Also on view: the large-scale tapestry L2VED2CH3, 2015, which debuted at Arrechea’s show at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes during the 2015 Havana Biennial.

Galleria Continua. The gallery is presenting a solo exhibition of Carlos Garaicoa, with recent work appearing alongside early pieces like the diptychs Rivoli or the Place Where the Blood Flows, 1993, and New Architectures for Cuito Cuanavale, 1999. Installations include The Roots of the World, 2016, an image of contained violence that invites us to rethink the dynamic of construction and destruction.

Galería Habana. Havana’s top gallery returns with a new—and at press time, yet undisclosed—roster of artists for the 2017 show. Last year, Ariamna Contino, Carlos Garaicoa, and Iván Capote were featured; this year’s selection promises to be equally interesting.

Sean Kelly Gallery. Los Carpinteros are frequently showcased in SKG’s art-fair appearances, and they’ll be on view here as well. For this Armory outing, they’ll be joined by Diana Fonseca Quiñones, whose abstract Degradaciones series is constructed of paint flakes scavenged from Havana’s aging buildings.

Jack Shainman Gallery.  His show at the gallery’s 24th Street space remains on view through next Sunday, March 11, but work by Yoan Capote is also included in the Jack Shainman Armory booth. The show in Chelsea spotlights Capote’s recent fish hook paintings, so look for other works at the piers—like Mass Portrait, a stone sculpture from 2009.

Fredric Snitzer Gallery. Last fall, the Miami gallery presented Rafael Domenech’s solo show, The List of Messier Objects. At the Armory Show, look for recent work by Domenech that continues to explore the themes of that exhibition, including scale and space, systems, and geographical identity.

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. At Wolkowitz, look for recent work by José Parlá, including the wall-like Writer Mentors/Passage Rights, 2016, an acrylic-and-plaster work measuring 5 x 8 feet.

Pan American Art Projects is participating in the Armory Show for the first time, with the selection of Abel Barroso’s 2012 Pinball del emigrante, which focuses on a series of playable wooden pinball machines that explore questions of migration and cultural identity. The work is included in a new Armory Show section, Platform. Curated by Eric Shiner, former director of the Andy Warhol Museum, Platform features a selection of large-scale pieces, installations, and site-specific works by an international roster of artists.

And elsewhere…

Galerie Lelong at ADAA. For ADAA: The Art Show (running March 1–5), Galerie Lelong is presenting a solo booth spotlighting Cuban-born artist Zilia Sánchez. The booth traces the evolution of Sánchez’s ongoing Topología series from the 1960s to the present.

NG Art Gallery at Scope. At Scope, Panama City–based NG Art Gallery will feature work by five Cuban artists: Adrián Fernández, Jorge Otero, Niels Reyes, José Luis Bermúdez, and Jorge Dáger. The fair runs March 2–5.