Artists Osmievy Ortega and Alejandro Aguilera enrich the community as Artists-In-Residence at Cleveland Institute of Art: the Cuba Project.

Dr. David Hart, Chief Organizer of the Cuba Project, and Artist-In-Residence, Osmievy Ortega, attend the Sculpture X-2 Conference held at CIA on October 15, 2011


Cuban Artists-In-Residence Osmievy Ortega and Alejandro Aguilera have made this a memorable semester for students and faculty at the Institute. Personable and outgoing, they have become vibrant additions to the Institute's community. Both have produced substantial artwork while here. Aguilera recently completed a large-scale painting in his Institute Studio while Ortega has been busy in the Print department producing large-scale relief prints and working with master printer Karen Beckwith. Their remarkable works have provided inspiration for the students working in close proximity with them.

Their personal styles have as well made them exciting visitors for area school children when they recently traveled to Villaview Community School and Hope Academy-East. While there Aguilera and Ortega spoke with young people about their own careers as artists and their homeland of Cuba. Students peppered them with questions about subjects as diverse as "Where did you get their ideas from?" and "Who is the president of Cuba?". Before leaving Cleveland they are looking forward to other such opportunities to engage the public in general and young people in particular.

Plans are currently being developed to exhibit the works of the Cuban Artists-In-Residence near the end of the project and there is still the spring semester ahead when the Institute will welcome its second round of artists. (An exhibition was held at the start of the program at MOCA - Cleveland which presented existing works by artists from the Cuba Project).

The Alejandro Aguilera and Osmievy Ortega will speak publicly at the Institute as part of the Lunch on Fridays series:
Friday, November 18, - 12:15 pm
CIA's Gund Building

Profiles of Aguilera and Ortega:

Alejandro Aguilera is an artist and Cuban émigré to the U.S. Born in 1964 in Holguín, Cuba, he received his BFA from Escuela de Arte (in Holguín) and his MFA from the Instituto Superior de Arte (, ISA,) in Havana. He currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia settling there after a period of living in Mexico because of his interest in the region’s history and in its burgeoning Latin community.

Over the last ten years Aguilera’s work has increasingly responded to a number of personal experiences and circumstances including rethinking Cuban identity and the creation of work that engages the conditions of the place he lives in. Working through sculpture, installation and drawing, and employing mechanisms of improvisation, Aguilera explores his relationships to art and its history as it is directed through his condition as an immigrant. The ideas and themes that inform these works are often directed by modern and contemporary works that critique the long history of primitivism in Modernist art. Aguilera has said of his own work, “I intend to expand upon the idea that artistic forms constantly permeated by notions of religiousness, freedom and beauty are never historically definitive.”

Cuba Art NY: Alejandro Aguilera


Osmievy Ortega was born in 1980 in Havana, Cuba. He lives and works in Havana, Cuba.

Rooted in the significant lithographic traditions such as the Cuban “tobacco stamps”, Osmievy Ortega revitalizes the print medium to represent scenes of subcultures, social margins and identity. Ortega recontextualizes the implicit beauty in the natural world through the exquisite handling and execution of his work. The linoleum reduction prints in the Cuba isla Pintoresca series recreate this inherit aesthetic in the rich colors and textured fibers of their organic and animal-like forms. In the series Puntos Cardinales, a labyrinth of lines form floating heads that come into contact with their local and dominating environments, creating a sense of torment and confusion.

Shown extensively throughout Cuba at the Biennials, Instituto Superior de Arte, and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wilfredo Lam, Ortega has also been a part of several group shows in the USA, Mexico and at the Grechen Biennial in Switzerland. In recognition of his superior print making skills, Ortega was the recipient of the Joven Estampa (Young Printer) in 2009.


Both artists participated in the first Cuba Project Symposium held at the Institute alongs side scholar Alejandro de la Fuente.

Works by Osmievy Ortega:







The Cuba Project is supported by funds from The Cleveland Foundation's Creative Fusions Grant.

Workshops and school visits by the artists are part of CIA's Arts + Achievement Program which is supported through the Key Foundation.

THE CUBA PROJECT

Friday's edition of CIA's Lunch on Fridays features artist Alejandro Aguilera. Aguilera was born in Cuba and currently lives in Atlanta. His talk is part of a week-long residency at the Institute and offers a preview of Cleveland Institute of Art’s Cuba Project.

“During the last ten years, my artistic work has been completely immersed in my experience as an immigrant – something I consider to be a type of condition, which, in turn, facilitates a particular relationship with the world and history of art…” – Alejandro Aguilera.

The Cuba Project is a year-long program that is highlighted by two symposia focusing on questions surrounding Cuba and contemporary creativity. In addition the Cuba Project brings five contemporary Cuban artists to Cleveland to engage and interact with the Institute’s community and the Cleveland community at large. The first symposium is on Thursday, Oct. 13 starting at 5:30 pm and in addition to Alejandro Aguilera will feature Cuban artist Osmeivy Ortega and scholar Alejandro de la Fuente, a Latin American Studies professor with the University of Pittsburgh. He is also the author of _A Nation for All: Race, Inequality and Politics in Twentieth Century Cuba_. The evening’s conversation will be moderated by the Institute’s own David Hart, Phd and will feature a keynote address by Professor de la Fuente.

Cleveland Institue of Art's Cuba Project represents a truly remarkable opportunity for the Cleveland Community and as well as the Institute's internal community. Over the course of the year the five Cuban Artists-In-Residence, each living in Cleveland for eight weeks, will literally become part of Cleveland's daily life. They will be visiting area schools and arts organizations and interacting with Institute students through studio visits and workshops. The first event associated with the Cuba Project is the exhibition currently on view at MOCA-Cleveland ...

The Cuba Project: The Cleveland Institute of Art at MOCA

This extraordinary project has grown out of The Cleveland Foundation's visionary Creative Fusion program which provided the funding to bring these artists to Cleveland. This program brings accomplished artists from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines to Cleveland for extended periods of time. While here they are embedded within existing cultural Institutions through which they become an active participant in Cleveland's Creative Community. The result is an atmosphere which readily fosters fusions in thought and creative thinking and which further energizes Cleveland's already vital Creative life.


The Cuba Project - selected Fall Programming:

Friday, Oct. 7, LOF, 12:15 - Alejandro Aguilera, artist's talk, CIA Gund Building, Ohio Bell Auditorium, Cinematheque entrance

Through December 31 - The Cuba Project: Cleveland Institute of Art at MOCA, exhibition

Thursday, Oct. 13, 5:30 pm - The Fall Cuba Project Symposium, CIA Gund Building, Aitken Auditorium, Cinematheque entrance

Friday, Oct. 14, 9:20 pm - Cinematheque presents the film "Fallen Gods" (Cuba/Mexico, 2008), directed by Ernesto Daranas. Cuban actress Annia du Maure will conduct a Q&A following the film. Note: Adult Content.

Friday, Nov. 18, LOF, 12:15 - Osmievy Ortega and Abel Barroso, artists' talks, CIA Gund Building, Ohio Bell Auditorium, Cinematheque entrance

The Cleveland Foundation - Creative Fusion

Other funding for The Cuba Project has been provided by the Cleveland Institute of Art's Visual Arts and Technologies Environment and its Liberal Arts Environment.

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Sarah Kabot - covert agent?

So, as many of you know, Ms. Kabot went mysteriously missing last spring around mid-term. It had all the earmarks of a CIA covert operation. Rumors were rampant that she was actually part of the team that took out Bin Laden. On her return no additional info was forthcoming which merely confirmed everyone’s suspicions that she was the U.S. equivalent of 007 … a highly trained special agent living undercover as a mild-mannered artist … no doubt working for CIA was a merry ruse designed to throw operatives off the track who might suspect her connections to THE CIA.

Finally though, the truth is revealed … and I’m just saying it doesn’t disprove my long-held suspicion that she’s a covert operative … but now we know … OMG!!! Sarah was a contestant on Season 2 of “Work of Art”!

So now new suspense … DOES SHE TAKE IT ALL???? Tune in to find out.

(yay! Sarah! -- really, really exciting!)
Sarah Kabot's Bio on Work-of-Art

The Cleveland Institute of Art: The Cuba Project - this will be amazing

Over the course of the 2011/2012 year The Cleveland Institute of Art will be hosting a total of five Cuban Artists as part of its Cuba Project. Coming in the fall: Abel Barroso Arencibia and Osmeivy Ortega Pacheco ... and in the spring: Alex Hernandez Dueñas; José Ángel Toirac Batista and Meira Marrero Día.

The Cuba Project represents a coordinated program designed to broaden exposure to Cuban art and life, and to dis-spell many of the myths surrounding life in Cuba. A core component of the program is cross-generational and cross-cultural dialogues. The centerpieces are two symposia dealing with nation and creative generations. The first of these will occur on the evening of Thursday, October 13.

In addition there will be a number of public talks, exhibitions, and other opportunities to engage these artists, their work, and Cuban culture.

CIA Associate Professor David Hart, PhD., is the Project Lead.

The Cleveland Institute of Art's Cuba Project is made possible by generous support from the Cleveland Foundation through its Creative Fusion initiative. (THANK YOU!)

Coming in 2011/2012 ...

Right now most of us are away on adventures. We are vacating, traveling, focusing on the work that is our work. Academic artists in particular, rely on the summers to be the artists they want to be ...

Coming in the fall will reports on all our doings and a view of the work and lives of four Cuban artists who will be in residence over the course of the year at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

We will see you then.

John Ewing, Thursday + Jeremy Bailey, Friday - See what CIA has to Offer!!!

Here's a list of some of CIA's spring events!!!
CIA's Website

This Friday!!!

TIME VISITING ARTIST
JEREMY BAILEY

Friday, Feb 4th
12:00 - 1:00pm, Aitken Auditorium, Gund
Pizza provided!


http://jeremybailey.net/
Jeremy Bailey is a Toronto-based new media artist whose work explores custom software in a performative context. Powered by humor and computer vision, his work wryly critiques the uneasy relationship between technology and the body while playfully engaging the protocols of digital media (Greg J Smith, Rhizome). His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and festivals internationally including upcoming exhibitions at Tate Liverpool and the New Museum in New York.
He received his MFA in Art Media Studies from Syracuse University in 2006.

LOF is sponsored by the Foundation and Liberal Arts Environments. Jeremy Bailey is sponsored by the TIME Department!

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John Ewing Award Ceremony + Showing of Rare French Film
Wednesday, Feb 3, 7:30pm

At the awards ceremony hosted by CIA and The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), Cinematheque Director John Ewing will receive a distinguished French honor performed by the French consulate in Chicago. Ewing was named a Chevalier (Knight) in the Order of Arts of Letters of the Republic of France for his many years of promoting culture at both the Cinematheque and the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), where he is Associate Director of Film.

Following the ceremony, Cinematheque will show one of Ewing’s all-time favorite French films, THE SKY IS YOURS (LA CIEL EST A VOUS.) Jean Grémillon’s masterpiece, undistributed in the U.S. and shown here in a rare archival print, tells of a provincial married couple (Madeleine Renaud, Charles Vanel) whose mundane, middle-class life together is turned upside down by a sudden passion for flying. Made during the Nazi Occupation of France during WWII, the film bravely (and subversively) celebrated the strength, courage, and forbearance of ordinary French citizens, both men and women. Moving and magnificent! Subtitles. 16mm. 105 min. Special thanks to the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley (Susan Oxtoby, Mona Nagai).
Aitken Auditorium. Information and special event ticket prices at cia.edu/cinematheque.

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Life Drawing Classes Wednesdays: Jan 19 – Apr 6 (7-9pm)
Pay as you go continuing education that supports your individual pace, whether you’re a beginner or advanced artist wanting to develop or refine your drawing skills.
Gund Building, Room 303. $15 pay at the door. cia.edu/continuinged
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CINEMATHEQUE

Audrey Hepburn: Sophisticated Lady Jan 15 – Feb 27
This film series will include film prints of seven movies starring the Oscar-winning actress: ROMAN HOLIDAY, SABRINA, FUNNY FACE, CHARADE, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, TWO FOR THE ROAD, and WAIT UNTIL DARK.
Aitken Auditorium. Movie times, information, and ticket prices at cia.edu/cinematheque
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65th Student Independent Exhibition Feb 18 – Mar 26
Opening Reception Feb 18, 6-9pm
A student sponsored and organized exhibition now in its sixty-fifth year, the SIE invites a jury of professional artists and designers to select the very best from hundreds of student submissions. Watch CIA’s young rising stars mingle with serious art collectors. Come early – the art sells quickly.
Reinberger Galleries. Free and Open.
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CINEMATHEQUE

Sergei Eisenstein's landmark film, Battleship Potemkin Feb 10 - 13
A landmark film from the Soviet master made in 1925 will screen in a new 35mm restoration print. Aitken Auditorium. Movie times, information, and ticket prices at cia.edu/cinematheque.

DOUBLE-STOP with filmmakers and stars in person Sunday, Feb 20, 2:30pm
This 1968 largely forgotten feature film, shot in Cleveland, directed by Gerald Sindell and never released on DVD tells the story of racial tolerance against the backdrop of parents struggling with equal opportunity education and the bussing of their child in a rough-and-tumble school. Screened at The Cannes Film Festival and winner of the Silver Phoenix award at the Atlanta Film Festival. The director, actor Billy Kurtz (the little boy in the film), and co-star Patti Fairchild (Fox 8's Stefani Schaefer's mother) will appear for a Q + A following the screening.
Aitken Auditorium. Information and special event ticket prices at cia.edu/cinematheque.


THE TAQWACORES with filmmaker Eyad Zahra in person Feb 24, 7pm + Feb 25, 9:30pm
Set in Buffalo but shot in Cleveland by ex-Clevelander Eyad Zahra, this groundbreaking look at the Muslim punk scene by unorthodox Islamic twenty-somethings who pray all day and party all night. Based on a 2003 novel by Michael Muhammad Knight. Director Zahad will answer audience questions both nights; on Thursday a panel discussion will take place after the film organized by InterAct Cleveland.
Aitken Auditorium. Information and special event ticket prices at cia.edu/cinematheque.

THE LEAPORD February 26 – 27
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque presents a new 35mm color restoration of Luchino Visconti’s 1963 French-Italian epic THE LEAPORD starring Burt Lancaster.
Aitken Auditorium. Movie times, information, and ticket prices at cia.edu/cinematheque.
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Lunch on Fridays – February
Free and open to the public, these Friday lectures showcase a variety of artists and designers including CIA faculty. For a full listing go to: cia.edu/events.
February 4, Jeremy Bailey, Visiting Artist T.I.M.E.-Digital Arts
February 11, Student Independent Exhibition Juror Panel
February 18, Report from Cuba: David Hart, Professor; Saul Ostrow, Chair Visual Arts and Technologies; and Charles Tucker, Head, Sculpture
February 25, Kerry McAleer-Keeler, Visiting Artist, Foundation
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Nick Cave, Bickford Visiting Artist Tuesday, Feb 15, 7 pm
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/n/nick_cave_artist/index.html
Nick Cave is one the most important artists working today. Employing approaches that reference traditional craft processes such as crochet, macramé, and sewing he seamlessly combines these with strategies which tap into newer traditions such as performance and social sculpture. His best known works are his soundsuits which combine dance, sound and costume design. His works are at once provocative and mesmerizing.

Cave is an internationally exhibited arts having shown in Sweeden and the Netherlands. He is currently represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York.

His appearance is made possible by CIA’s George P. Bickford Fund for Visiting Artists and the Fibers and Materials Studies Department.
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Allan Ludwig, Liberal Arts Visiting Artist, Tuesday, Feb 22, 7 pm
Photographer of the New Grotesque
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CINEMATHEQUE
Charlie Chaplin Retrospective Mar - June
Beginning in March, the Cinematheque will show all of Chaplin's feature films (and many of his classic shorts), most in new 35mm film prints. March and April will focus on Chaplin's silent work (THE KID, THE GOLD RUSH, THE CIRCUS, CITY LIGHTS, et al.) while his sound features (MODERN TIMES, THE GREAT DICTATOR, LIMELIGHT, et al.) will show in May and early June.
Aitken Auditorium. Movie times, information, and ticket prices at cia.edu/cinematheque
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March
Lunch on Fridays
Free and open to the public, these Friday lectures showcase a variety of artists and designers including CIA faculty. For a full listing go to: cia.edu/events.
4 Barbara Stanczak, Professor, Foundation
18 Allen Zimmerman, Poetry, Calligraphy and Landscape in Chinese Art
25 Gary Sampson, Return to Zeitgeist: Piranesi and Contemporary Design Thinking
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Clarence Morgan, Painting Bickford Visiting Artist
Tuesday, Mar 15, 7 pm
http://www.clarence-morgan.com/

Clarence Morgan is a painter who lives and works in Minneapolis. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. Solo and group exhibitions include Reeves Contemporary (New York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Romo Gallery (Atlanta), Gallery Joe (Philadelphia), Harwood Museum of Art (New Mexico), David Lusk Gallery (Memphis), Kidder Smith (Boston), Thomas Barry Fine Art (Minneapolis), Rosenberg Kaufman Fine Art (New York), Palmer Art Museum (Pennsylvania), Art in General (New York). He received his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 and a four-year certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts in 1975. Grants include a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship, Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board Grant, North Carolina Arts Council Visual Artist Fellowship, Southern Arts Federation NEA Regional Fellowship, a grant from Art Matters, Inc. His work is included in the collections of the Cleveland Art Museum, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Art Institute, General Mills, and University of Alabama, among others. Morgan currently teaches painting in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he is a professor and formerly chair of the department.
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THE SPRING SHOW @CIA- Apr 1 – 30
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April
Lunch on Fridays -
Free and open to the public, these Friday lectures showcase a variety of artists and designers including CIA faculty. Ohio Bell Auditorium. Free and Open. For a full listing 1 Ramez Islambouli, Liberal Arts Visiting Scholar
go to: cia.edu/events.
8 Mary Davis, Liberal Arts Visiting Scholar
15 Rita Goodman, CIA Professor of Art History
22 Debra Rosen + Todd Pownell , Visiting Artists, Foundation
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Marek Cecula, Bickford Visiting Artist Wednesday, Apr 6, -
Time and Place to be Announced. Please watch the website.
Marek Cecula,
http://www.marekcecula.com/index.php

Cecula has built a career in ceramics as an artist, designer and educator working through the conceptual implications of ceramic objects and their meanings in contemporary culture. His work conveys his own seduction by ceramic work and the aesthetic values it carries.

Born in Poland, Cecula currently lives and works in both New York and Poland. In 2004 he curated The Third Biennale for Israeli Ceramics and in 2009 he served as a guest curator for “Object Factory II” at the Museum of Arts & Design New York. His work is included in such collections as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Le Musee royal de Mariemont, Belgium.

Marek Cecula’s visit is made possible by CIA’s George P. Bickford Fund for Visiting Artists and the Ceramics Department.
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MAY
BFA Thesis Exhibitions May 2 – 7
This school-wide event showcases over ninety BFA candidates with hundreds of works of art and design in all media and disciplines. A feast for the senses!

The Student Summer Show May 14 through the summer
has something for everyone with work in all media including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, industrial design, communications, medical illustration, animation, video, and more.

CINEMATHEQUE
Charlie Chaplin Retrospective Mar - June
Beginning in March, the Cinematheque will show all of Chaplin's feature films (and many of his classic shorts), most in new 35mm film prints. March and April will focus on Chaplin's silent work (THE KID, THE GOLD RUSH, THE CIRCUS, CITY LIGHTS, et al.) while his sound features (MODERN TIMES, THE GREAT DICTATOR, LIMELIGHT, et al.) will show in May and early June.
Aitken Auditorium. Movie times, information, and ticket prices at cia.edu/cinematheque