Pan American Art Projects is very pleased to announce our next exhibition, Vanitas by Cuban artistic team José Toirac & Meira Marrero.

Artists will be in Miami from September 7 through September 15 and will be available for interviews during that time.

The exhibition focuses on the concept of vanity as an ephemeral element in the trajectory of one's life. Through the integration of several works from different stages in their artistic production the artists make the point that everything is temporary: fame, beauty, power, political alliances, wealth.

The centerpiece to the exhibition, from which we get the title of our show, Vanitas, is an assemblage of 23 portraits of the first ladies of Cuba.

Cara y Cruz is a work from 1996 composed of 16 paintings: 8 of them are of young revolutionaries who were executed for opposition to Batista, president of Cuba 1954-1958. The other eight are of people executed immediately after the Cuban revolution for their involvement in the assassination of people who fought against Batista.

Vanitas brings together a group of pieces that deal with the notion of mortality mostly from a philosophical point of view. The works are from different periods, proving that transience has been a continual theme in these artists’ oeuvre. The concept is treated from different angles, of human decay and even death like in Vanitas here the beautiful young face of the woman in the 1952 magazine cover is translated into a striking, beautifully executed white marble sculpture of a skull; then we have the more abstract instances like politics, as in Cara y Cruz.It is their way of reflecting about the temporality of life, beauty, political or financial success. Memento Mori, one of the audio/video installations, this idea with the echo of its imponderable message: remember that you will die, in tens of different languages.

Vanitas is the first exhibition for the artists in a gallery in Miami, Florida; and it includes paintings, sculptures, installations and videos.

José Angel Toirac was born in Guantanamo, Cuba, in 1966 and graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte of Havana in 1990.

Meira Marrero was born in Havana in 1969 and graduated from the University of Havana in 1992 with a degree in Art History.

The two have been working as a husband and wife team for a little over 10 years. Toirac (the artist) and Meira (the art historian) work as a laboratory of study and development of ideas; sometimes they invite the participation of colleagues from other disciplines (photography, design, video production, music) depending on the project. Their work is characterized by a thorough investigation, and it frequently includes the use of documents and images, both historical and artistic, from national records and archives. They deal with collective memories, and with how these can explain the present; sometimes they "exhume" fragments of memory erased by history. Their work often contains a strong component of political and social critique.

All images courtesy of Pan American Art Projects and the artists.

Pan American Art Projects
2450 NW 2nd Avenue
Miami (FL) 33127 United States
Tel. +1 (305) 5732400
miami@panamericanart.com
www.panamericanart.com

Opening hours
Tuesday - Friday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Saturday 12:00pm - 5:30pm