Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery presented the conference “Trans-identity and Rupture” on June the 23th, facilitated by the critic and art analyst Marianne de Tolentino from the Dominican Republic and the renowned art historian and cuban curator Janet Batet from Miami to talk about the work and statement of the master Luis Cruz Azaceta.
Marianne de Tolentino, current Director of the National Gallery of Fine Arts of Santo Domingo, explained his recent work, the permanent evolution of the artist and the direction of a work that is renewed through the break with his own past.
Janet Batet focused on the career of Cruz Azaceta, marking essential milestones in his artistic development and linking his career to the concept of trans-identity, something more than present throughout the Caribbean space. Based on the concepts of Sygmund Bauman: liquid modernity, liquid fear, precariat to imbricate it to the contemporary global society where, definitively, the proposal of Azaceta is inserted.
Marianne De Tolentino:
Originally from a family of artists, born French and Dominican because of her marriage to Dr. Mario Tolentino Dipp, Marianne Tolentino has spent her entire professional life in Santo Domingo, dedicating herself to education, culture and art.
As a cultural officer, she was Ambassador in charge of Cultural Affairs of the State Secretariat for Foreign Affairs, in charge of International Relations in the General Directorate of Fine Arts and the Museum of Modern Art.
She has been part of the Dominican Delegation in assemblies and international organizations: UNESCO, UN, OAS, European Union, Caribbean Regional Cultural Committee, Latin American Sculpture Seminar, Meeting of Cultural Operators, Havana Biennial, Sao Paulo Biennial, Carib’ Art, Caribbean Studies Seminar (University of Cartagena). He has offered numerous courses and art conferences.
She is currently in charge of the column of art and culture, “Creation” in the newspaper “Hoy”. Apart from hundreds of articles in the “Listín Diario”, she has collaborated with several art magazines and newspapers of Latin American countries, being today correspondent of the Colombian magazine “Art Nexus” and collaborator of “Arte al Día”. She has been director / editor of the cultural magazine “Cariforum”. She also is Commander of the Order of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella, the highest Dominican decoration.
In 2015, she received the National Corripio Foundation Award for the best articles on culture in the Media, and has just received recognition from the Chamber of Deputies as Woman relevant 2017.
She has been awarded by the Dominican Association of Art Critics as the best Art Critic in Media: years 2011, 2013, 2016.
Currently, she is the Director of the National Gallery of Fine Arts, a branch of the Ministry of Culture of the R.D.
She is the curator of the newly opened Fernando Peña Defillo Museum and a member of its patrimonial Foundation.
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Janet Batet (Havana, 1970)
Art historian, curator and essayist. Graduated from Art History at the University of Havana (1987-1092) and her Masters in New Media at the University UQAM, at Montreal (2002-2004).
Former researcher and curator of the Visual Arts Development Center (1992-1998), Havana, Cuba and Professor of the Higher Institute of Art, in the City of Havana.
Her research is oriented towards new technologies and contemporary art with special attention to Latin American and Caribbean artistic practices. Curator of Latin American Graphic. XX-XXI centuries. Member of the management team that laid the foundations of the Contemporary Cuban Art Salon, based in Havana. He also collaborated as a specialist in Caribbean Art for the 1st Montreal Biennial, with the CIAC (International Contemporary Art Center, Montreal). His writings on contemporary art are regularly published in prestigious periodicals such as Art Nexus, Art Daily, Art Pulse, Art Experience: NYC, The New Herald, Art District, Cuban Art, Cuban Art News, Themes, The Miami Rail, Knight Arts Miami, among others.
Among her curatorships there are:
-Golden Silence: Omar Barquet and José Ángel Vincench. Dotfiftyone Gallery,
Miami, 2017.
– Prophylactic life: Hamlet Lavastida. Dotfiftyone Gallery, Miami, 2015.
– Crossroads of Dystopia. Frost Art Museum, FIU, Miami, 2014
– Ramiro Lacayo Deshon: Conversations with Abstract Expressionism. The Americas Collection Gallery, Miami, 2014.
– The Silent Shout: Voices in Cuban Abstraction 1950-2013. (Janet curatorship
Batet, José Ángel Vincench and Rafael Diaz-Casas). Virginia Miller Gallery,
Miami, 2013-2014.
– Like lamb to the slaughterhouse. Photo Madrid, Madrid, 2012.
– 90 Miles: Living in the Vortex. Dotfiftyone Gallery, Miami, 2011.
– Central America: Civics and violence. (Curator Clara Astiasarán and Janet Batet) Feria Arteamericas, Miami Beach, 2011.
– Mario Bencomo: Utopie: If le Québec était a tropical country. Beaux-Arts des Amériques, Montréal, 2010.
– Re-collections: Carlos Betancourt. Moly College Art Gallery, New York, 2009.
– Art Encounters: Latin America. CCE, Miami, 2009.
– Rêveries. Art et Mémoire. Nuit Blanches, UQAM, 2003.
– Illumination. Art and religion Silver Spur Gallery, 1998
– Paintings of silence. Biennial of Havana-Acacia Gallery, Havana, 1996.
– Palimpsestos. Appointments and Appropriations. Havana Gallery, Havana, 1995.
– Vae Victis. Gallery Spur Silver, Havana, 1992.
Batet has contributed essays to numerous books and catalogs, highlighting among them, The Silent Shout: Voices in Cuban Abstraction 1950-2013 (Artspace / Virginia Miller Galleries, Miami, 2014), Antonia Eiriz: A Painter and Her Audience (MDC Museum of Art + Design, Miami Dade College, Miami, 2013); Wrinkles of the City. JR and José Parlá (Havana, Damiani / Standard Press, 2012); Disappointment. Luis Gispert (Ohwow Press, 2011); Liu Bolin (Galerie Paris-Beijing, 2011); Trans-Cuban Identity (VIII Encounter Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University, Miami, 2011); On Nature of men (III International Encounter of Art Critics. Wifredo Lam, Havana, 1997); Paintings of Silence (Galería La Acacia, 1995) and Palimpsestos: Appointments and Appropriations (Galería Habana, 1995).
Essays of his authorship have been included in the following art anthologies Cuban: We the most infidels: Critical narratives of Cuban art 1993-2005 (Andres Isaac Santana, editor, CENDEAC, 2006); Anthology of Critical Essays: The New Cuban Art (Magaly Espinosa and Kevin Power, editors; Perceval Press, Santa Monica, 2006) and Artists in Purgatory (Aldo Menendez, editor. The Cuban Art Alliance, 2017).
