Cuba in Parallel: Two views of Cuba
Featuring Cuban, Adrián Juan Espinosa & American, Paul M. Murray
The work in this exhibition comes to us direct from Cuba through the efforts of both Cuban and American artists working together to move beyond borders.
Cuba in Parallel brings together the work of local member Paul M Murray and Camagüey-based photographer, Adrián Juan Espinosa in this curated exhibition to present two photographers views of Cuba with an eye toward our shared humanity. The images collected here provide a deeper look, reflecting the daily experience, a view of home… This is not the typical tourist’s view of Cuba.
Curated by Juan Carlos Mejias Ruiz, Cuba In Parallel, first opened 2021, at Camaguey’s Galeria Republica 289 in Camaguey, Cuba then traveled to Santiago de Cuba and just opened at Galeria del Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño la Habana in Havana in mid July. This collaborative two person exhibition reflects the photographer’s, one Cuban and one American, view of Cuban life as each experienced it independently across several years and stands as a example of what can be done when artists work together beyond borders.
About the Artists:
Adrián Juan Espinosa is a Camagüey-based photographer and geography professor at the University of Camagüey. His photographic work covers a wide range of genres including documentary, nature, conceptual and fine art. His thought-provoking photo illustration series are notable for their thematic and technical excellence.
Paul M. Murray is an award-winning travel, nature, and wildlife color photographer based in the United States. His work reflects a blend of his lifelong interests in art, nature, technology, aviation, urban life and societal change. He exhibits extensively in the United States and Cuba as well as in Greece, Hungary, Spain, and across the Internet.
Opening Reception: August 18th 5:00 – 8:00pm
On View: Thursday, August 18th, thru Friday, September 9th, 2022
Free and Open to the Public
Opening Reception & Awards Presentation: August 18th, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, 118 N. Main St. Providence, RI
Cuba In Parallel will be presented in tandem with Cuban Overture: The Other Side of the Mirror with Daniel Martínez, a solo presentation of Cuban photographer Daniel Martínez
This exhibition is also available in a fully virtual gallery format at https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/8837363/cuba-in-parallel
Curator’s statement – Juan Carlos Mejías Ruiz
These two artists of the lens, from different generations and latitudes, have created a very pleasant atmosphere of rapprochement, this healthy and friendly exchange produces strong links and strategic alliances that sooner or later offer results like the one we are dealing with today: an exhibition of artists from two different shores of the Atlantic on Cuba in its multiple moments and forms of existence, the result has been quite similar, varied images ranging from the historical to the everyday and from the rural to the urban, always passing through that island touch that makes you smell the morning coffee and the breeze at the seashore.
The exhibition will give us the opportunity to see what can be interesting for artists from these different geographical origins: Paul Murray (Jamestown, RI, USA), a man with vast experience and recognition in color and nature photography, and Adrian Juan (Camaguey, Cuba), a university professor who has been successfully dedicating himself to photography for some years and has already made a group of interesting exhibitions.
The memory of light, color and the bustle of the streets are the distant companions of this series of photos taken mainly in the big island of the Caribbean, Cuba and its people are a powerful subject for any artist of the lens, especially when each one of them is the document of many stories of life in the mountains and the city, labyrinths in which our day to day struggle to love and exist takes place.
– M. Sc. Juan Carlos Mejías Ruiz
About: Juan Carlos Mejías Ruiz
A resident and native of Camagüey, Juan Carlos Mejías Ruiz has worked as a specialist at the Provincial Council of Plastic Arts of Camagüey (CPAP) since 2004, as curator researching, promoting, and organizing of visual arts projects. Currently, he is CPAP’s president supporting the realization of different creative projects and collaborating to promote the work of artists in traditional media and social networks.
He has curated and organized more than one hundred exhibitions, some of them outside Cuba. He is well-known as a communicator and promoter of the visual arts in his city, but he constantly travels with exhibitions to various parts of the island, where he has created a large group of professional relationships.
Notably, Juan Carlos works with Fototeca de Cuba in Havana to extend their “Photographic November” event to Camagüey, where every year the participation of Cuban photographers and those from different countries such as the United States, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Italy, and Finland grows.
Juan Carlos Mejías Ruiz: Full Bio
Exhibiting Photographers
Adrián Juan Espinosa: Camagüey, Cuba
Paul M. Murray: Jamestown, RI
The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, RICPA
Located in the heart of Providence, RICPA was founded to inspire creative development and provide opportunities to engage with the community through exhibitions, education, publication, and mutual support.
RICPA exists to create a diverse and supportive community for individuals interested in learning or working in Photographic Arts. We strive to provide an environment conducive to the free exchange of ideas in an open and cooperative space. Members should share a passion for creating, appreciating, or learning about all forms of photo-based media. We work to provide a platform for artistic expression, that fosters dialogue and drives innovation in the photographic arts.
The Gallery at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts is a member of Gallery Night Providence Gallery Night
This work is excellent. I am very grateful to the people of the Gallery for hosting the exhibition. Many thanks to the curator Juan Carlos Mejías and especially to the excellent photographer and friend Mr. Murray.