AIGA Portland presents a FREE exhibition in partnership with OCAC
*Please note: This exhibition is a separate event, and is happening at a different date and location from our lecture event.

Cuban Ephemera: Exploring Aesthetics of Cuban Design

A curatorial collaboration by Sam Hopple, Martha Lewis and Beverly Walton

The United States and Cuba have a complicated history. With Trump now in office, the diplomatic relations and so-called embargo with Cuba remain ambiguous. However, the perceptions of cultural communities and their ongoing battle to be seen, still exist.

Though Obama re-established diplomatic ties with Cuba,"el bloque" or blockade, remains in effect. Its lasting consequences of isolation have created flawed perspectives of the Cuban community. These biases remain deep seeded in our sociopolitical climate — a concoction of mistrust and mystery.

The Cuban Ephemera: Exploring Aesthetics of Cuban Design Exhibition, highlights contemporary Cuban culture through the voice of visual art and the keen eye of local art collector, Beverly Walton (director of Red Ink). The exhibition showcases multiple Cuban designers, including our guest artists: Michele Hollands and Idania del Rio.

Beverly Walton

Beverly Walton is an art collector here in Portland, Oregon. She owns and operates Red Ink, a website featuring Cuban graphic design. For the last 26 years, she has traveled back and forth to Cuba, where she has exhibited and sold Cuban posters in various US venues. She continues to collect and create connections between the graphic design communities in Cuba and the United States.

Michele Hollands

Michele lives and works in Havana as a designer, art director and professor. She graduated from ISDI (Instituto Superior de Desiño) in 2002 and is an Art Director of the cultural magazine La Gaceta de Cuba”. She has taught for several years at ISDI and at ISA (The Superior Institute of Art). Her work has been exhibited in and outside the country, and reviewed by national and international publications.

Idania del Rio

Idania del Rio is a designer, illustrator and entrepreneur living in Havana, Cuba. She is the co-founder and Creative Director of Clandestina, a design store-studio-workshop in Old Havana. Her posters and illustrations have been exhibited in Germany, Brasil, Perú, Mexico, USA and France.

Can’t make it to the exhibition opening event? The exhibition will be on display at the OCAC Hoffman Gallery from February 15–March 10.

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