Lisandra Ramírez "Memories". "Carbon", by Serlian Barreto, Pan American Art Projects
Channel: MSA eXperimental
Date: 2022-05-18

Lisandra Ramírez "Memories". "Carbon", by Serlian Barreto, Pan American Art Projects

Carbon, by Serlian Barreto, curated by Claudia Taboda, is a series composed of work produced over the last two years as a homage to his grandfather, who is a lifelong producer and exporter of coal in Cuba. Barreto grew up with his grandfather and has in-depth knowledge of the specific procedures to convert organic materials into coal, to later be used as fuel: from gathering raw materials to the characteristics of the ecosystem in which the burning takes place. His paintings resemble a giant notebook depicting this process: what is often overlooked is magnified through his eyes.
Serlian Barreto was born in Cuba and lives and works in the United States. He graduated from the San Alejandro Art Academy, Havana. His work has been exhibited in several galleries in Cuba, at the Havana Biennial, and at institutions in Naples, Italy. Despite his short career, Barreto is a talented emerging artist who analyzes each of his works with an old-fashioned perspective, much like Renaissance artists: notes, sketches, reference clippings, etc. Most of Barreto’s works are in private and public collections as well as in The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, FL, USA; Jorge M. Perez Collection, Miami, FL, USA; and, El Oficio: Revista de Arte y Literatura Magazine Collection, Havana, Cuba.

Lisandra Ramírez was born in Havana in 1986. Her childhood was encompassed by the rupture of the Cuban utopia – the end of prosperity and Soviet influence, the fall of the socialist system, and the resulting socio-economic crisis of the era known as the "special period." Within this milieu, Ramírez grew up in the Cerro neighborhood of Havana amid a kaleidoscope of colonial tiles, neoclassical and eclectic colonnades, and the rich ornamentation of the former aristocracies.

In the imagination of the child, this space of evaporating artifacts and stories merged with images from Soviet cartoons, toys, and books. As the world depolarized, images seeping in from American and Japanese cultures collided with the visual language of her childhood. In concert with the architecture, furniture, and decorations of the colonial and republican past of the Cerro, these influences had a decisive impact on the formative visual memory of the artist.