Opening 22 September 2018
Artists Danisbel Abad Lopez and Mauricis Reyes Aranda
along with the exhibition curator Robert Van de Peer will be in attendance at the opening.
The exhibition Cuba: Contemporary Prints is the result of a creative partnership between artists from Canada and Cuba. The bridging force has been master printmaker Robert Van de Peer. In residence during the summer at Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Centre’s Printshop in St Andrews, New Brunswick, Robert spends the winter in the printshop at the Taller Cultural Luis Diaz Eduardo in Santiago De Cuba.
“My part-time residence in Cuba over the past six years has given me the opportunity to teach non-toxic techniques in printmaking and form a close relationship with Cuban artists. Cuban printmakers are limited by the availability of materials, and the most common technique that is used is collagraph, a print made from a matrix of cardboard and glue. They have refined this process to a fine degree,” says Van De Peer. He described the Cuban printmakers’ creative ideas as often dream-like, romantic in many ways, and having a distinct echo of Africa, brought to the island through the early slave trade.
We are honoured to host this exhibition which, in itself, has been a collaborative effort between our sister galleries Sunbury Shores, the Saint John Art Centre and us. The Cuban printmakers are masters of invention using the materials that are available to them and the results are impressive.
Jennifer Stead
Executive Director