There were two talented young Cuban artists I met in San Francisco, this work belongs to Lisandra. Very colorful, distinctive and evocative images. 
TEXT FROM HAVANA CULTURA http://havana-cultura.com/en/visual-arts/fragil-lisandra-isabel-garcia-lopez
Lisandra wants to continue with her previous work that explores identity and individuality through the displaying of personal, everyday objects. She built a room missing one of its walls so as to make it accessible to the spectator. The three walls are covered with paintings representing the artist’s personal belongings. On the floors, we find several figures lying down. Four large glasses display human faces painted with a sandblaster, and a light pointed at them results in the images being reflected on the walls.
Below is an extract from her project statement that resumes this piece’s themes:
“My intention with this piece is to work on the subject of intimate introspection which I have been developing for some time now, essentially through self-referential pieces. I want to create a personal world from my own experiences, experimenting with various materials and supports in order to take drawing to a different dimension.
I intend to continue exploring what’s ordinary, intimate, and feminine, representing in my work objects from my own domestic environment to highlight my taste, motivation, and sensibilities, and reflect on the permeability towards the environment that surrounds us.
The notion of transparency is a very important element that is always present in my work. Transparency, to me, means, above all, sensibility towards common and simple things. It also means fragility, vulnerability, and permeability to outside influences and to the things that are part of our lives and we interact with on a daily basis.
I find the contrast interesting because of the juxtaposition of opposed concepts which are, at the same time, complementary. These concepts are represented by the materials from which the piece is built. To give an example, I use glass because it is transparent, fragile, breakable, and delicate, but also resistant, firm, solid, strong, and lasting.”
Lisandra Isabel García López was born in Havana in 1989. She is currently a student at the Higher Institute of Arts and a graduate from the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts. Lisandra has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Torbellino II (Galería Habana, Havana, 2011); Interna cognición (National Union of Artists and Writers, Havana, 2010); and Viene el lobo (el verdadero loop) (Factoría Habana, Havana, 2010). In 2010, she was awarded the second prize at the Cubafoto photography festival (Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center, Havana). She has taken part in academic and artistic exchange programs with New York University (USA), the University of Arts and Social Sciences (Germany), and Cardinal Wiseman High School (UK).
In her words: In my works I propose the evasion of reality as personal art concept and creative strategy. The self-reference is determined by this attitude that doesn’t turns into apathy but into conscious reconversion of the reality that surrounds me. I construct, in an almost autobiographic way, an introspective world where I display my own evasion fantasies, and where I try to find refuge. I create it from my own life experience and my personal universe. In that world I transmute fragments of my body, quotidian environments and objects. I turn them into something filled with a personal meaning, that allows me, imaginatively, get refuge from the rest of the world and, at the same time, highlight certain sorts of likes, customs, motivations and sensibilities.
Lisandra Isabel García López Havana, 1989.
Studies
Actually works as an art specialist at the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, in Havana.
2013 Graduates the Faculty of Visual Arts at the Higher Institute of Arts, in Havana
2008 Graduates from the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, in Havana.
Solo exhibitions
2013 Soft Glass. Villa Manuela Gallery. UNEAC. Havana.
2012 Adolescent artist self-portrait. CMBF. Radio Musical Nacional. Havana.
2010 Imitation of Life. Miramar Trade Center Art Gallery, Havana.
2009 Inventory 55. Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. Havana. Adolescent artist self-portrait. Oswaldo Guayasamín Gallery, Havana.
2008 Thesis Adolescent artist self-portrait. José Antonio Díaz Peláez Gallery, San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, Havana.
Collective Exhibitions
2014 En Rosa.Collage Habana Gallery. Havana, Cuba.
2013 Cuba Contemporánea. Centro Cultural Manoir de Cologny. Geneva, Switzerland.
2012 Gulliver. Meeting Havana Cultura. Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany.
La herencia de la tradición pictórica. Show of Cuban Digital Arts organized by Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center. Casona Municipal. Córdoba, Argentina.
La herencia de la tradición pictórica. Muestra Show of Cuban Digital Arts organized by Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center. Fedro Gallery. Salta, Argentina.SenseLAB, Collateral Exhibition 11th Havana Biennial, Art History and Literature Faculty, Havana. http://www.senselab.info
A smell that comes through my window: Havana Cultura. 11th Havana Biennial. Gallery of the Museum of Rum. Havana Club International, Havana. http://www.havana-cultura.com/visual-arts-project
Layers. 11th Havana Biennial. Visual Arts Faculty, ISA, Havana.
Part-Time. 11th Havana Biennial, Theatrical Art Faculty, ISA, Havana.
2011 Torbellino II. Habana Gallery, Havana.
2010 Interna cognición. Villena Exhibition Hall. UNEAC. Havana.
Emplazamiento. Mariano Rodríguez Gallery. Villa Panamericana. Habana del Este, Havana.
Screening of documentaries and show of photographs made for Tisch workshop. Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, Havana.
Turn Around. La Casona Gallery, Havana.
Torbellino. San Antonio María Claret Cultural and Animation Missionary Center, Santiago de Cuba.
Viene el Lobo (el verdadero loop). Factoría Habana Gallery, Havana.
5×7 Photo Festival at the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center, Havana.
XVI Erotic Art Exhibition. Fayad Jamís Gallery, Arts and Literature Center, Habana del Este, Havana.
Esporas. Pabellón Cuba, Havana.
2009 1st International Exhibition of Plastic Artists Tunjuelito Locality. Exhibition Hall, Cultural House, Bogotá. Colombia.
Luz a tu propia química 2. Cuban Photographic Library, Havana.
X Digital Arts Exhibition. Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center. Havana.
Pura coincidencia. Collateral Exhibition 10th Havana Biennial. Expocuba. Havana.
Crisis Expocuba. Havana. Collateral Exhibition 10th Havana Biennial.
2007 Variations in black and white. Photographic exhibition. José Antonio Díaz Peláez
Gallery. San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts. Havana.
Se acabó + Pixel. Maqueta de la Habana, Havana.
SHOT. IX Exhibition of Digital Arts. 23 y 12 Cinema Art Gallery, Havana.
Yo,Yo y Yo. Visual Arts Experimental Center. Belkis Ayón Gallery, Havana.
Tiempo compartido. Your photography space. Photokasbah. Spain. http://www.phk.es/aguilar/tiempo-compartido
International Contest on Surrealist Photography Eibar 2007. Plaza de Untzaga. Ayuntamiento de Eibar. Guipúzcoa. Spain.
Efecto, Acción y Reacción. Carmelo González Gallery. Cultural Center, Plaza Municipality, Havana.
Awards
2012 Havana Cultura Residence. Havana Cultura Visual Art Projects. Havana Club Internacional.
2010 Second prize Cubafoto. 5×7 Photo Festival, Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center, Havana.
Génesis Art Galleries Prize. 5×7 Photo Festival, Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center. Havana..
Special Prize of the Cultural Management at Habana del Este Municipality. XVI Erotic Art
Exhibition. Fayad Jamís Gallery, Arts and Literature Center. Habana del Este.
First Prize. XVI Erotic Art Exhibition. Fayad Jamís Gallery, Arts and Literature Center.
Habana del Este, Havana.
2007 Mention at the IX Exhibition of Digital Arts. Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center, Havana.
Conferences and Talks
2012 Mirar desde la sospecha. Representaciones de género en las Artes Visuales. UNEAC. Havana.
2009 Inventory 55. Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. Havana.
Other activities
2012, 2013 Piece Donation to auction for the fight against cancer, organized by Ludwig Foundation of Cuba and Canada Embassy in Cuba.
2010 Tisch Documentary Production Workshop by Professor Robert Pietri. Special programs of Tisch School of The Arts, NYU. Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. Havana.
2009 Sense Lab Workshop. Exchange project between the Cuban Higher Institute of Arts, Cuba, and Alanus, University of Arts and Social Sciences, Germany, by Professors Antonio Correa, Frency Fernández, Andrea Sunder-Plassmann, and Dagmar Wöhler. http://www.senselab.info
2006-2007 Exchange Project Cuba-UK Solidarity in Art, between Cardinal Wiseman High School and the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts. Havana, 2006/London, 2007.
The authors designed the books based on their extensive travel experiences: “ It all started one panicked night in a Chinese hotel room, after we were unable to purchase a train ticket or order food because no one spoke English and our Chinese was, well, nonexistent. We solved the issue with hand-drawn pictures and phrases, which we used like flashcards for the remainder of our trip. The technique was so successful, we just had to turn the idea into a book series.”
People are also much more willing to engage with you if you learn a new language, even if it’s not perfect. It also shows great respect as a visitor. I once took Italian prior to a long adventure, my goal was to win an argument in a bar…I did save us 10 Lira for refusing to pay for the tablecloth charge! It was rewarding in more ways than the tiny fee, I felt a little more accepted by the locals.
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