I have sometimes thought about what, for once, I might call “the oneiric substance,” if only to steer the question into less sinister territory: do dreams arise from experiences not fully processed, or are they autonomous energetic structures, detached from various material or temporal sources, that pass through the mind in search of the lost warmth of emotions? The question has its beauty.

In encounters with certain works of contemporary visual art, perception activates modes of association that situate aesthetic experience in territories where matter, gesture, and time intertwine. Elizabet Cerviño’s (Manzanillo, Cuba, 1986) exhibition The Rhythm of Resilience, recently presented at Gallery 114 in Ybor City, Florida, unfolds within this horizon.

On Saturday, September 12th, The Annex Gallery brought together some forty people for an evening of celebration and fundraising dedicated to advancing the education of children living in some of the world's poorest communities.

Beyond I.T.I.N.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.S., at The Annex Gallery, The Most Merciful Thing in the World, by renowned American artist Trevor Paglen, was the first exhibition I visited in the current FotoFocus Biennial at its main venue. Open since October 1, it held its official reception only yesterday, on the 3rd, following a performance-lecture by Paglen.

In the Middle of the Endless Water, a solo exhibition by Julia Orquera Bianco curated by Carolina Cuervo at the Philip M. Meyers Jr. Memorial Gallery at the University of Cincinnati, brings together more than a decade of work by an artist whose practice has gradually moved from the personal experience of migration toward an inquiry into territory, memory, ecology, and alternative forms of knowledge.

I suppose that, like me, hundreds and probably thousands of viewers developed a dark sympathy for the character of Hannibal Lecter. The two actors who, to date, have embodied him most memorably are Anthony Hopkins and Mads Mikkelsen. The character displays extraordinary intelligence and self-control. He conducts himself according to his own rules and ethical codes.

The following interview was published by Hypermedia Magazine on July 9, 2019, as part of its section “The Forms of Violence.” Today, with Juan-Sí’s explicit authorization—and, presumably, that of its author, who died in Havana a few years ago—we reproduce it in the Annex News Section on the occasion of his exhibition I.T.I.N.E.R.A.T.I.O.N.S. at The Annex Gallery.

In a couple of weeks, The Annex Gallery will receive an exhibition by Juan-Sí González. There are several generations of Cuban artists —the younger ones especially— with only a very blurred idea of who Juan-Sí is and what his role has been in Cuban visual arts during the second half of the twentieth century. Some do not know him at all. This does not surprise me.

Photographer Jens G. Rosenkrantz Jr. opens Crossing the Border next Friday, September 4, in the main gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas in Miami. This is only the second time this body of photographs, taken along an extensive stretch of the southern border of the United States, has been shown publicly. Its first presentation took place in Cuba, at Fábrica de Arte Cubano, in 2019...