Pitt Art Show in Cuba

Pitt’s Center for Latin American Studies and University Center for International Studies, along with the Mattress Factory, are sponsoring an exhibition, Queloides/Keloids: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art, at the Centro Wifredo Lam in Havana, Cuba, through May 31. The exhibition—which will be displayed at the Mattress Factory on the North Side from Oct. 8, 2010, through Feb. 27, 2011—addresses the debate about the persistence of racism in contemporary Cuba and throughout the world. It is one of the first art exhibitions in Cuba to be sponsored by a U.S. institution of higher education. Curators are Alejandro de la Fuente, a Pitt research professor of history and Latin American studies, and Elio Rodríguez Valdés, a Cuban artist whose work explores race, gender, nationalism, and globalization. The 12 participating artists are renowned for their critical work on issues of race, discrimination, and identity. Shown here is a two-part painting, Diptico, by Armando Mariño. Funding for the exhibition was provided by Pitt’s Humanities Center, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Christopher Reynolds Foundation-Atlantic Philanthropies, the Lambent Foundation, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, and the Heinz Endowments.