Collective exhibition

Salón Blanco Gallery, April 7 – May 15, 2023

The exhibition was part of the activities for the launching of the visual arts calls for proposals program of the Youth Art Fund (YAF).

It included works by a group of Cuban artists under the age of 40 who have played a leading role in the emerging art scene over the last decade. The group of works exhibited included different manifestations of the visual arts, such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and installation.

The title Hijos de Darwin (Children of Darwin) is based on the maxim that “the individual who survives in a given environment need not be the strongest, but the one who manages to adapt to that context”; it refers to the simplified interpretation of the theory of the evolution of species, coined by researcher and naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Taken to the field of visual arts in Cuba, it refers to generations of young artists who continue to create, despite extreme circumstances that drastically affect their thoughts and their artistic beings: the pain of emigration –temporary or definitive, their own or that of their peers–; the uncertainty in the face of constant economic instability; the question of choosing art as a way of life.

The selection of artists does not intend to establish watertight criteria on the validity of some creators over others. In fact, the title leaves the margin open for the inclusion of many other Cuban artists, both inside and outside the island. What this means is that it is merely a symbolic selection on an expanded phenomenon within the history of Cuban art. In this sense, all the works included in the exhibition are not related to each other, but their authors are.

Curated by Sandra García-Herrera