Juan Carlos Muņoz to travel from Cuba for show
By Jennifer Nessmith
Staff writer
So you're interested in Cuban art, but there's just one problem: Americans are not allowed to travel to Cuba, and vice versa.
Don't worry. Marjorie Pravden, owner of downtown Melbourne-based Cuba! Gallery of Fine Art, will bring the artists to you - or at least one of them.
Ms. Pravden will host Cuban painter Juan Carlos Muņoz and his exhibit, titled "Cabezas Calientes," or, in English, "Hot Heads," on back-to-back opening nights from 6-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6-7.
All of the art in Ms. Pravden's gallery is from inside Cuba and was created by artists who live and work there. She obtains these pieces by traveling to Cuba herself with a special license obtained through the U.S. Treasury Department in which she is allowed to travel to Cuba from Miami with diplomats and their families. Ms. Pravden is permitted to do this to gather what the department classifies as "informational materials," including art. She has been to Cuba on art-finding missions more than 20 times.
"I go whenever I get depleted in inventory," Ms. Pravden said. "I can't take anybody with me unless they're a full-time employee, and the Treasury Department requires that I work an eight-hour day and log where I go and who I talk to. It's a very strict policy."
Ms. Pravden met Mr. Munoz during one such mission through her facilitator/interpreter.
"I discovered his art in a gallery - there aren't many in Cuba - and I took the steps to find out where he was. He lives in a farm town outside of Havana."
Mr. Muņoz, a retired physics professor, paints in a 100-square-foot room built on top of his house. He describes his art three-fold, Ms. Pravden said.
"He says, 'I am an expressionist, a realist and sometimes, a surrealist,'" Ms. Pravden said. "He doesn't try to copy the masters, he just pays them homage."
After a year of navigating regulations with the governments of both Cuba and the U.S., Cuba! Gallery of Fine Art has secured legal permission for Mr. Muņoz and his wife/agent Allison Cabrera to travel to Melbourne for the exhibition.
"He has been painting for this exhibition for one year, which is 10 months before we knew he was allowed to come," Ms. Pravden said. "The U.S. hasn't issued a visitor's visa to an artist in Cuba to come to his own exhibition in the U.S. since 2002."
The exhibit is described as a 28-image series in acrylic on canvas depicting important issues of human existence on the island of Cuba.
Additionally, while Mr. Muņoz is stateside, he will be guest artist at a workshop for artists and college students in conjunction with Brevard Museum of Art School featuring a collaborative acrylics project with attending artists. The workshop is scheduled from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, at Brevard Museum of Art School, located in the Rene Foosaner Education Center, 1520 Highland Ave., Melbourne. For more information, call Bobbie McMillan, Museum School director, at (321) 242-0737.
Mr. Muņoz's exhibit, "Cabezas Calientes," will run from Nov. 9 through Dec. 6, Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Cuba! Gallery of Fine Arts has moved from its former location on New Haven Avenue across from Sun Shoppe to a space inside the 1900 Building at 1900 S. Harbor City Blvd., Suite 124-A.
For more information, call Marjorie Pravden at (321) 729-8800 or send an e-mail to cubagallery@gmail.com.