Organized to augment the teaching in Latin American Studies, this exhibition features the work of one of Cuba’s most famous and accomplished painters. Manuel López Oliva’s paintings combine eclectic literary and historic images with theatrical and artisanal themes. His profusely patterned, dreamlike paintings possess rich layers of color and meaning. Many Cubans interpret López Oliva’s work as highly representative of the surreal, self-contradictory, and multi-layered reality of contemporary Cuban life.

López Oliva completed his studies at the National Academy of Art, in Havana and is one of Cuba’s premier artists and cultural critics. He is an editor for Cuba’s leading culture and arts magazine Temas, and has served in the governing body of UNEAC, Cuba’s union of artists and writers. Though López Oliva’s paintings are featured in the permanent collections of museums in France, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Norway, Cuba, and the United States. This will be the first solo exhibition of his work in the U.S.