Art News

The exhibition About faith and substance was inaugurated on January 28, 2023 and will be on display until February 27 at the Padre Félix Varela Cultural Center, in Havana, Cuba. Different artists from different generations participated, including two works by the visual artist Marta María Pérez Bravo, (El Arbol Rojo treasures the artist's work in its warehouses), we leave the link here so you can see it.

Below is the text of the exhibition curated by the specialist Niurka Fanego Alonso and the words dedicated to the work of Marta María Pérez, specifically.

Main text of the leaflet dedicated to the exhibition

About faith and substance

Saint John Paul II gave himself up to a long and complex life in pursuit of ecumenism. By devoting himself body and soul to the union of Christian churches, he unfailingly encouraged communion between countries, people, and spiritualities. In his apostolic visit to Cuba, the first in our history, he received various impressions about the religious idiosyncrasy of the Cuban, or better, the ways in which it is expressed. And in his message, he would exhort: "That Cuba open up to the world with all its magnificent possibilities, and that the world open up to Cuba." The interpretative dimension around this desire can be applied to different areas of daily life, and among them, the universe of contemporary art is emerging as a language and text of unlimited potential; it is inserted in the national culture; It is encouraged by generations of artists and today it speaks to Cuba and the world with the strength, the certainties and the searches that are inherent to it.

There is in Cuba a long and rich tradition linked to religious art, Christianity and, particularly, Catholicism. For this reason, we approach curatorship as an embrace of the prolific, from the grounds of spirituality, concerns, dissonances, and concords; of introspection, doubts, the search for knowledge and the recovery of the past as supports for the future. Artists from different generations share their mastery in painting, drawing, photography and installation, as well as their sensitivity to investigate and interpret feelings around nationality. Metaphors and poetry, dreams and false relics are also displayed in this building, which was the original headquarters of the San Carlos and San Ambrosio Conciliar Seminary, "the main center of knowledge in Cuba, the most learned as well as the most progressive ”, according to Emilio Roig from Leuchsenring; space where before and now, people have lived for Cubanness and the nation, for the Homeland, Science and Humanism.

Each work, in this exhibition, is a space that is offered to the diversity of intellective, spiritual, artistic will. It is, in principle, the consequence of assuming that condition as an essence, as much as that related to the creed and its legitimate and authentic praxis. Each work is a confidence that is extracted from the interior of the soul, is transmitted thanks to the codes of art, and is socialized.

In the Christian world, the History of Art has been, for centuries, the history of faith, presented from Beauty. The story of love is also the story of faith. Saint John Paul II said that faith was a gift, a divine grace, but so was reason: believing in order to understand; understand to believe. Combining such precedents, and from the heart of the former town of San Cristóbal de La Habana, we share this invitation about faith and substance.

Commentary dedicated to the works of Marta María Pérez Bravo

Contemplating the works of Marta María Pérez Bravo is always a markedly aesthetic experience. In a good part of religious art, the workmanship, the finishing of forms and surfaces, hold a high symbolic value, and Marta María belongs completely to that tradition. Her images are refined, generally evoking the total body through her parts, and the presence of actions could become the axis of the representation. Some pieces seem to have been made to preside over rituals, they are neat and loaded with personal experiences, because, in fact, her development as a woman and mother has been transforming her artistic process.

Two tributes are presented in this exhibition. They live on affection, it is a prayer for the souls of the deceased so that "perpetual light shines for them." On her part, The stars are the jewels of her mind, evokes the Virgin of Charity, Patroness of Cuba, in a subtle synthesis of attributes that expresses the spiritual preeminence that her symbol has for her. Hence, her Marian dress appears decorated with little stars that remind us of Venus, that is, the ability to love, the taste for Beauty and the sense of value. Rounding off her exciting pieces, the title always fills us with poetry.

Niurka Fanego Alfonso, curator.