The La Laguna gallery will travel to the United States with works by Juan Roberto Diago, Marco Alom, Amparo Sard, Raúl Cordero, Dave McKean, Carlos Nicanor and Martín & Sicilia.
Artizar Gallery will return to the United States in April to take part in Expo Chicago, the international contemporary art exhibition that will be held at Navy Pier in Chicago from the 13th to the 16th of next month. The art space, located in La Laguna at 63 San Agustín Street, will be exhibiting a selection of works by some of the artists with whom it collaborates: Juan Roberto Diago, Marco Alom, Amparo Sard, Raúl Cordero, Dave McKean, Carlos Nicanor and Martín & Sicilia.
With this exhibition project, Artizar wants to highlight the transatlantic link that it has been developing for many years, “combining the works of masters of Cuban art such as Juan Roberto Diago and Raúl Cordero with the paintings of the great British illustrator Dave McKean and the latest works of outstanding artists from the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, such as Marco Alom, Martín & Sicilia, Amparo Sard and Carlos Nicanor, who were exhibited at the last Expo in Chicago.
THE LEGACY OF AFRICA
Roberto Diago (Havana, 1971), for example, one of Cuba’s most renowned contemporary artists, is part of this oceanic link. His work focuses on the everyday, using the materials that daily life offers him and charging them with symbolism in an act of cultural resistance. His work reflects an interest in the legacy of African culture brought by the slaves and how it is represented in contemporary Cuban society.
Dave McKean (Taplow, Berkshire, England, 1963) is one of Britain’s and the world’s most renowned illustrators and designers. He is also a photographer, pianist and film director. His collaboration with the famous author Neil Gaiman has helped to spread his visually powerful graphic work, which offers unreal, dreamlike and scattered images through a style that relies heavily on painting and the use of collage.
Another artist taking part in Expo Chicago with the Artizar Gallery is the Mallorcan artist Amparo Sard (1973), whose work, which is marked by social denunciation, can be found in important public and private collections such as the MoMA, the Guggenheim, the West Collection (Museum of Contemporary Art in Chelsea, New York) or the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome.
The works of Carlos Nicanor (Gran Canaria, 1974) have been selected for the Biennials of Gran Canaria and Tenerife and have won first prizes such as the Excellens de Escultura de la Real Academia Canaria de Bellas Artes de San Miguel Arcángel (2011) or the Primer Premio Manolo Millares CajaCanarias (2009). In 2006 he held his first solo exhibition, entitled Buscador de nortes, in which he presented a series of veiled tributes to sculptors he admires, under the motto “where everything is done and everything is to be done”.
