This exhibition of Cuban prints was curated by Artist and University of Alabama Printmaking Professor Sarah Marshall, who has travelled to Cuba several times to learn and teach printmaking with some of the country’s finest artists and educators. 

According to a story first published on the UA website, when she saw the talent of the traditional printmakers in Cuba, she wanted to bring that influence back to this country—helping the Cuban printmakers build a name for themselves internationally while exposing Alabamians to new artists and styles.

Walnut Gallery Executive Director, Mario Gallardo, traveled to Cuba in May of 2016, as part of an arts and cultural tour with Gadsden State. Before the trip Marshall and Gallardo spoke about showing the Cuban print collection at the Walnut Gallery. While in Cuba, Gallardo and students met with several of the artists in the exhibition including Aliosky Garcia, a professor and the director of printmaking at the National Institute of Art in Havana, Cuba. From the first sight of the work, it was clear that the show had to come to the Walnut Gallery.

Speaking about Aliosky's art Marshall said “One of the reasons I was so excited to show Garcia’s work was that it is beautifully printed and beautifully carved, but it is also austere and simple. A lot of students today don’t want to work in black and white because it seems boring, but there is an entire world of things that you can say with just a black and white picture or a single human form, and I wanted them to see that.”

Several artists in this exhibition will visit the University of Alabama in October of this year to present and to make work. Plan are in the works to have them visit Gadsden. Stay tuned!

Special thanks to Courtney Corbridge in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Alabama. More information can be found from her original article http://www.as.ua.edu/2016/05/06/professor-brings-cuban-art-to-alabama/