BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN | This extensive and rather timely group exhibition presents a cross-generational group of artists who all live and work in Havana, Cuba. The range of media is eclectic — including site-specific installations, sculptures, paintings, works on paper and photographs, among others.
In order to enter the exhibition, visitors will have to pass underneath a site-specific installation by Arlés del Rio, which is comprised of multi-colored, elongated snorkels. Hanging just out of reach, they generate a sense of visceral yearning for what lies beyond.
![Arlés del Rio: “La Necesidad de Otros Aires” (2015 | installation: silicone, nylon, plastic and metal no. 2, 3, and 4 [300 plastic tubes] | dimensions variable). Courtesy Robert Miller Gallery.](https://www.amny.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Oct29_Art_Aires.jpeg "‘Nuevos Colores’ at Robert Miller Gallery 2")
Holding up a pie pan embroidered with thread and beads in her self-portrait photograph, Aimée García also expresses her longing to be freed from the everyday, and her hope to find magic in the mundane.
Elsewhere, Ariamna Contino’s hand-cut and meticulously layered three-dimensional paper images contrast the paper’s inherent fragility with the subject matter: deadly weapons used to commit mass murder.
What these works have in common, aside from their shared cultural background, is that they reference a Cuban socio-political context. Here, oppression, yearning, dichotomies, and alternate realities are recurring themes.
Through Nov. 14 at Robert Miller Gallery (524 W. 26th St. btw. 10th & 11th Aves.).
Hours: Tues.–Sat., 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Call 212-366-4774 or visit robertmillergallery.com.
