Opening reception: Saturday March 23, 2024 | 2:00 – 7:00 pm
On view until Friday March 29 by appointment. Please contact info@residencyunlimited.org
Location: Cuban Artists Fund studio, 208 E 51st St, New York, NY
Dracula’s Briefcase is a collaboration between the multi-disciplinary artists Alina Aguila, Cucu Diamantes and Orestes Hernández.
Dracula’s Briefcase has many facets. On the one hand, it conveys liberation that comes in part from rebellion. On the other hand, it embraces tradition that rejects the confines of time. Dracula’s Briefcase holds secrets by distancing itself from the ordinary. It welcomes mystery and abstraction. Modern societies drain the vitality of life and feed on the soul of cultures. The artist intervenes by forcing a halt of the gaze. As a result, forgiveness and transformation come from art and ultimately from the universe. (Text by Orestes Hernández; translated by Viviana Diaz; edited by Tanya Selvaratnam)
Click below to see images from the opening reception.
About
Alina Aguila is an artist from Cuba whose work exposes a withdrawal, manipulation and concern for the minute details of the object and its perception. Her work tends to distort the relationship of individual matter and space, altering the scales both physically and psychologically. The works are exhibited as material poetry, weaving together stories, narratives subject to the unreal, absurd and indeterminate. The artist’s work has been exhibited in Cuba, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Spain and the United States. Select solo exhibitions include: Hilos de ortigas at Gorría workshop Gallery, Havana, Cuba (2022); De la infancia a la vejez, y también viceversa, duo show with Tana Garrido at Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, Spain (2020); El jardín de los suecos, duo show with Orestes Hernández at Galerie knoerle & baettig, Winterthur, Switzerland (2017).
In his practice, Cuban artist Orestes Hernández deals with ideas related to banality, mundane approaches to our perception, with a keen interest in the very act of showing things. His objects and installations dismantle the artistic reality in the search of new ways to face creation. Through painting and production that connects with his work in video, Orestes shows the aesthetics of “cut and paste” and contemporary visual saturation. More than an artist, Orestes is a cultural chronicler of his time. Select exhibitions include: Feliz, Feroz y Amén at LKB/G, Hamburg, Germany (2017); La primera Aventura at Galerie Knoerle & Baettig, Switzerland (2014); and the collective shows ABUC, Eleven Cuban Artists at the Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland (2019); Illness Has a Colour at the XIII Havana Biennial (2019); Art x Cuba. Contemporary Perpectives since 1989 at Ludwig Forum Aachen, Germany (2017); and Overseas at Halle 14, Center for Contemporary Art, Leipzig, Germany (2017). His works have been presented at the Havana Biennial and the Contemporary Visual Art and New Film Festival in Berlin.
Cucu Diamantes is a Grammy nominated Cuban-American singer, songwriter, actress, and philanthropist. Her 2009 debut album Cuculand received a Latin Grammy Nomination for Best Alternative Song, “Más Fuerte”. Diamantes is also cofounder and lead singer of Grammy nominated New York City fusion band Yerba Buena. She did a performance with David Hammons in Havana and also performed at the Cuban Biennial. A frequent collaborator, Diamantes has worked with Carlinhos Brown, Yotuel Romero, Lenine, Fat Boy Slim, Meshell Ndegeocello, Vico C, Les Nubians, Rossy de Palma, John Leguizamo, Paulina Rubio, Aleks Syntek, and Beto Cuevas.
This program benefits from the support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Cuban Artists Fund.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
