Furthermore, American Heartbeats took the opportunity to highlight the contributions of four Cuban artists, each having migrated to the United States under different circumstances and at varying moments in history. Representing those who arrived nearly half a century ago, the exhibition proudly featured the renowned artist Lia Galletti, whose work has left an indelible mark on the artistic landscape. From more recent generations that have made Florida their home for nearly twenty years, the exhibition included Aurora Molina, known for her thought-provoking textile work; Milena Martínez Pedrosa, whose multimedia creations explore the complexity of personal and cultural identity; and Blanca Beatriz Caraballo, who brings a poetic sensibility to her visual narratives. The exhibition also introduced the emerging talents of Sheila Fraga, a young artist with a few years in Miami-Dade County, and Liant Martínez, who resides between Europe and Havana, offering a unique perspective on diaspora and belonging.

By weaving together the stories and artistic expressions of these remarkable women, American Heartbeats not only celebrated their individual achievements but also sparked a dialogue on the broader themes of integration, identity, and the role of art in society. This exhibition stood as a testament to the power of art to connect, challenge, and inspire, inviting viewers to embark on a journey of discovery and reflection.

Furthermore, American Heartbeats took the opportunity to highlight the contributions of four Cuban artists, each having migrated to the United States under different circumstances and at varying moments in history. Representing those who arrived nearly half a century ago, the exhibition proudly featured the renowned artist Lia Galletti, whose work has left an indelible mark on the artistic landscape. From more recent generations that have made Florida their home for nearly twenty years, the exhibition included Aurora Molina, known for her thought-provoking textile work; Milena Martínez Pedrosa, whose multimedia creations explore the complexity of personal and cultural identity; and Blanca Beatriz Caraballo, who brings a poetic sensibility to her visual narratives. The exhibition also introduced the emerging talents of Sheila Fraga, a young artist with a few years in Miami-Dade County, and Liant Martínez, who resides between Europe and Havana, offering a unique perspective on diaspora and belonging.

By weaving together the stories and artistic expressions of these remarkable women, American Heartbeats not only celebrated their individual achievements but also sparked a dialogue on the broader themes of integration, identity, and the role of art in society. This exhibition stood as a testament to the power of art to connect, challenge, and inspire, inviting viewers to embark on a journey of discovery and reflection.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ARTISTS

Aisha Ascóniga (Perú)
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Aisha Ascóniga is a young Peruvian artist, painter and sculptor whose art already belongs to important private collections, such as that of Luciano Benetton and the Peruvian Hochschild. You might have found her work at fairs, such as Pinta Miami, Tokyo Art Fair, Asia Contemporary Art Show in Hong Kong, amongst others. Her art places the politicisation of the female body and identity at center stage. By focusing on the violence of the beauty industry and the susceptibility of the human mind to social tendencies, she begs to question information propaganda and consumerism as tools for control. The visual art that she produces from intensive introspection is developing an iconography that critiques the modern female freedom of choice.

Carola Bravo (Venezuela)

Multimedia artist Carola Bravo (born in Caracas, Venezuela; lives and works in Miami, FL) challenges the concept of migration as a norm and not a crisis by using the traditional image of a general traffic sign, showing silhouettes of herself carrying suitcases and a text with the phrase: Yield to Immigrants. The work addresses the tension between migration issues and the authority of public signs as civic markers. It also questions how manipulating traditional public signs alters their meaning, reminding us about the value of inclusion and our critical role in society.Bravo holds a Ph.D. in Architecture (2016), an MA. in Art History (2003) from Universidad Central de Venezuela, and a BSc in Architecture from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, USA (1987). Her work has been part of numerous group and solo exhibitions worldwide and has been featured in, among others, The Wall Street Journal, El Nuevo Herald, and ArtNexus Magazine. Her solo exhibitions in Miami include: “Inhabited Geometries” (2019) Bernice Steinbaum Gallery; “Blurred Borders” (2016) The Frost Art Museum; “We are where we are not” (2013) The Screening Room.

Blanca Beatriz Caraballo (Cuba - Estados Unidos)

Blanca Beatriz Caraballo (Bettina) was born in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba. She studied three years of Art Education at the Highest Institute of Education Enrique Jose Varona, in La Habana. She moved to Miami, Florida in 1991 where she continued her education at Miami Dade Community College and Florida International University, graduating in Liberal Studies in 2002. She is part of Proyecto Setra, a literary and creative organization that promotes literature in Spanish and the interactions of the arts. In 2006, Bettina met Baruj Salinas, who became her teacher and mentor. Blanca has exhibited since 1999.

Bella Cardim
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Bella Cardim is a Miami-based Brazilian born visual artist. Cardim’s artistic research and output are housed around emotional hunger and body image awareness. After an extensive career in commercial food photography, Cardim now uses her practice to investigate the psychological impact of food in terms of nourishment and indulgence. Her conceptual framework allows her to draw attention to emotional eating disorders and excessive consumption.
Cardim's artistic career, commencing in 2020, has been marked by notable accomplishments. Recent highlights include her last solo exhibition, "No One is an Island," curated by Adriana Herrera at The Mifa gallery, and her selection for a solo exhibition at The Bonnier Gallery in Miami by "The 55 Project," both in 2023. In 2022, Cardim was selected to participate in the Florida Biennial, where her works "Dysmorphia" and "Restrained" were standout pieces among thousands of submissions. Additionally, her engagement in group exhibitions like "Bolsa de Ficção" in São Paulo and "ConTEXT II" at Art Fluent in Boston, where she received the "Director’s Choice" award, has further enriched her artistic journey.
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Sheila Fraga (Cuba - Estados Unidos)

Sheila Fraga is a Cuban-born artist based in Miami. Fraga was educated at The Manero Experimental Workshop of Painting, La Ceiba, Cuba (1994-1995), and she graduated fromThe San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, Marianao, Cuba (1996-1999). Her painting and drawing is focused on the female figure and personal life. She received the Grand Prize in the Salon Flora 2001 in Homage to The Cuban Painter Rene Portocarrero. Her Work has been included in important group exhibitions in Cuba, Miami and Internationally. Cuban and American Artists Exhibitions, U.S. Interests Section, Havana, Cuba (2001); Identificaciones, The University of Aveiro, Portugal, (2004); Your majestic The King!, Juried Art Competition and Exhibition, Bairrada Wine Museum, Anadia, Portugal (2008), Cuban Contemporary Artists, José Lorenzo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2009); Elektro-Sexual, The Bridge Art Center, Chicago, IL (2010); Art Takes Miami and ScopeArt during Art Basel in Miami, FL (2014), Art| Miami-Dade Exhibition/Art Basel Week, Stephen P. Clark Center, Miami, FL (2017). Documenta II, Pompano Beach Cultural Center, Pompano Beach, FL (2018), a group show, Roots of an Identity, at The Miramar Art Center, Miramar, FL (2019) and “My Feminine Side”, at The Foundation Dionísio Pinheiro e Alice Cardoso Pinheiro, Agueda, Portugal (2020). Fraga’s work can be found in permanent collections at St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral, Italy, The University of Aveiro Portugal, and Sacramento Contemporary Art Gallery.

Lia Galletti (Cuba - Estados Unidos)
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Born in Havana, Cuba, 1943, Lia Galletti is an established painter and printmaker, known for her abstract expressionist work. She moved to New York City in 1960, where she finished her education and started to paint and exhibit her work in New York’s Greenwich Village and other venues on the east coast. During the 70’s and 80’s Lia worked in advertising agencies in NY and Miami, specializing in architectural renderings in pen and ink and watercolors as a free-lance artist. In 1986-1987 she studied etching at the Metropolitan Museum Printmaking Workshop, Coral Gables, FL. Lia has been painting ever since, developing her individual style and technique. Lia exhibited her work and received an award at The Boston Printmakers, Brockton Art Museum, Boston, MA (1988). Her work is in their collection, as well as in the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, where she participated at the Ibero American Printmaking Biennial of San Juan, Puerto Rico (1987). She recently participated in the Tokyo International Mini Print Triennial at Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan, the International Biennial Print Exhibit: 2020 ROC, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, the Guanlan International Print Biennial China 2017, 2019, 2021 China Print Museum, Guanlan, Shenzhen, China and the 4th Geoje International Art Festival, Haegeumgang Art Museum in South Korea.
Lia has had solo exhibitions in Washington, DC; Orisha, Kingston, Jamaica and in Florida at Art Miami and Art Americas in Miami, Interstices at the Capitol Complex in Tallahassee and recently at Kendall Art Center, Miami, Florida. She has participated in collective expositions in the US, including Caribbean Visions: Painting and Sculpture (a traveling exhibition in 1995); Cadaqués, Spain; Ottawa, Canada; and Mexico City (VI Bienal Iberoamericana de Arte Pedro Domecq). She participated in the Art In Embassies program in 1995 at the American Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica. Lia has received several awards, including State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship HM Visual Arts/Painting (2000). Her work is in several private and public collections, including Bacardi International and The Art Museum of the Americas at the Organization of American States, Washington, DC. Her work has sold at Sotheby’s New York. Lia Galletti currently lives in Miami, Florida, where she has her studio.

Sandra García-Pardo (Colombia)

Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sandra Garcia- Pardo has been involved in art since early years passing through different artistic experiences in her country, from the School of Fine Arts to Publishing Design. Thanks to a governmental scholarship, she moved to Argentina to finally materialize her dream getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at “Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón”, the most prestigious art school of Argentina located in the city of Buenos Aires. It is when she began an intimate and instantaneous relationship with steel that makes her realize she had found a new partner. Knowing this new material, she creates challenging pieces full of abstract concepts of human beings in different stages of life, and as an inevitable part of the society we live in. Her art is characterized by the simplicityand also by the duality of strong messages and the inexplicable delicacy of her sculptures made out of iron. Garcia- Pardo moved to USA to continue enriching her artistic talent and to exhibit in different galleries all over the country. Her art is now in private collections in the United States, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Spain and Argentina. Sandra Garcia-Pardo continues working in her studio in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Florida.

Aimée Joaristi (Cuba, Spain - Costa Rica)
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Aimée Joaristi, born in Cuba, is a multidisciplinary artist who explores themes related to unconsciousness, playful transgression, Cuban migration and female vindication in her recent works. From painting and installation, to performance, video art and short films, the multiple media are conceived as one more channel of communication for those messages born from intuition and self-exploration.Among his outstanding exhibitions are the 1st International Biennial of Contemporary Art SACO, 13th Biennial of Havana 2019, the International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Mantua 2017, the Biennial of Guayaquil 2016, the 5th International Triennial of Fiber and Textile Art of Riga 2015. She has also exhibited at Passelle Centre D'Art Contemporain in Brest, France; Matadero, Museo C.A.V. La Neomudéjar, Museo Ciudad del Arte Zapadores, Centro Cultural La Casa del Reloj, PHOTO España and ARCO in Madrid, Spain; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de las Américas, Miami, Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center, Fort Myers, and Museum of Arts and Science, Daytona, United States; ART Lima in Peru; Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno "Carlos Mérida", Museo Miraflores, Fundación Rozas Botrán, Guatemala City, Guatemala;;; among others.His works are in private collections in Chile, France, Mexico, Madrid and others and important public collections including the Wifredo Lam Museum in Cuba, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Latvia and the C.A.V. La Neomudéjar Museum in Spain.

Aurora Molina (Cuba - Estados Unidos)
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Aurora Molina was born in La Havana, Cuba, in 1984. She emigrated to the United States at the age of sixteen, where she opted to pursue an education in art. Molina received her Associates of Arts in Visual Arts from Miami Dade College, a Bachelors in Fine Arts specializing in Mixed Media from Florida International University and Master Degree in Contemporary Art at the Universidad Europea de Madrid completed in 2009. She currently resides in Miami, Florida, where she works as a full time artist, represented since 2011 by Bernice Steinbaum Gallery. Using the tools of embroidery, sculpture-making, drawing, photography, and video, she uses the potential of fiber art to communicate ideas about social and political issues. Her multifaceted platform provides a sustained and powerful critique of a society that “dismisses” the most vulnerable as they become invisible and hidden from everyday life. My early work is concerned with the objectification of beauty and the growing anonymity of the elderly in our society. I believe a clear connection exists between the media-fueled manipulation, edification and standardization of physical beauty and the increasing denial of the actual process of physical aging. To be old today is to slowly become invisible. My work is, in many ways, a critique of this postmodern iconography as it attempts to highlight not only the natural process of aging but society’s concomitant refusal to recognize it as such. My pieces attempt to draw attention to the ways in which this self-absorption is encouraged by an unfettered individualism which unchallenged serves only to fracture family ties, friendships, and the larger social consciousness, creating an awkward integration when the individual no longer conforms to the established standards. I examine this growing need to connect by focusing on individual narratives. Whereas society has slowly created “fictions” and “virtual realities” to replace the real, I instead direct the spectator’s attention to the everyday real happenings of ordinary lives. Using the tools of embroidery, sculpture-making, drawing, photography, and video, she uses the potential of fiber art to communicate ideas about social and political issues. Her multifaceted platform provides a sustained and powerful critique of a society that “dismisses” the most vulnerable as they become invisible and hidden from everyday life. ⁣With a commitment to Advanced Fiber Art in Miami, Molina is a co-founder of FAMA, Fiber Artists-Miami Association a newly artist collaborative that builds community through textiles and weaves Miami together.

Lianet Martínez (Cuba)

Lianet Martínez Pino is a visual artist born in Cienfuegos, Cuba. She graduated in 2012 in the Specialty of Painting at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in Havana. Having graduated in 2019 from the Superior Institute of Art (Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA)), she was distinguished with the award for the most creative graduate. Since 2011, her participation in exhibitions both in Cuba and abroad has been countless.In 2012she presented her works Prótesis (Prothesis)in the 11th Havana Biennial and in 2015 the Walter Otero Contemporary Art Gallery invited her to the Trienal Poligráfica in San Juan, Puerto Rico. That same year she created the piece La despedida (Farewell) for the Cambridge Art Fair in London and placed the installation Al filo de…. (At the edge of…) for the 12th Havana Biennial on the premises of the Superior Art Institute of Havana. Between 2016 and 2017, she participated with works in various exhibitions including “Lamernos los unos a los otros”(Licking each other) at the Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales and “Clase Abierta” (Open class) at Galería-Taller Gorría.

Milena Martínez Pedrosa (Cuba - Estados Unidos)

Milena Martínez Pedrosa (b. Havana, Cuba, 1971). Milena Pedrosa is a Cuban visual artist currently residing in Miami, Florida. She graduated from the Escuela Elemental de Artes Plasticas (Havana, Cuba) in 1986, before continuing her training at the Academia de Arte “San Alejandro” (Havana, Cuba). She graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Instituto Superior de Arte (Havana, Cuba) in 1995. Pedrosa’s unique style stems from her pride of being Cuban; her background and history of her native Cuba acting doubly as her muse and artistic inspiration, resulting in mysterious collages of hyperrealism and surrealist figures or kaleidoscopic genre scenes depicting the hustle-bustle of her Havana city. She has participated in several group and solo exhibitions in Cuba, Latin America and the USA, some of which include, “Si Tim tiene, Tim Vale,” Collateral exhibition of Havana Biennial, Superior Art’s Institute, Havana, Cuba, 1991; “Nacido en Cuba,” traveling exhibition of Cuban artists, Venezuela, Puerto Rico & México, 1991-1993; “Junto a los niños,” UNICEF sponsored exhibition at Imago Gallery, Havana, Cuba, 1995 and “Pequeño Formato,” La Boheme Fine Art, Coral Gables, USA, 1996 to name a few. Since 1998, Milena has been running the Art Department at Advanced Multi-Sign Corporation; a graphic company co-created between her and her husband, while maintaining a strong presence in the contemporary art scene.

Marta María Pérez Bravo ( Cuba - México)

Marta María Pérez Bravo (born 1959) is a Cuban artist who is best  known for her black-and-white self-portraiture, in which she often uses  her own body as the central subject-object to express her own belief in  - and practice of - Afro-Cuban religions, particularly Santeria and  Palo Monte. Much of her art is informed by this practice, and engages  with the themes of ritual, motherhood and femininity, expressed through  the highly stylized posing of her body, which is placed in relation to  personally and ritually significant objects in her self-portraits.
Pérez Bravo's work is usually staged, small-format black-and-white  photographs where she uses her body as a vessel to express her cultural  and religious perspective. She is deeply connected to her cultural  background, especially the religious belief of the Afro-Caribbean  Santería. The Santería  believe that the divine exists in all things, even in everyday objects.  These objects are often "votive offerings and other elements of popular  lore" [3]  of her Cuban culture. This is why Pérez Bravo chooses such familiar  objects such as rope, branches, and animal parts to express the divine  nature of all things. Her photographs attempt to express her own  spiritual path, documenting her progress through abstract and dream-like  staged photographs. Although her spiritual path itself remains vague,  we are given a glimpse into her divine experiences. This is done  primarily by her transformation of her own body alternatively into an  altar or an offering, or a vehicle for sacred meaning.  There is an  emphasis on the exploration and performance of both spiritual and  physical power in Pérez Bravo’s self-portraiture, which together  “remythify” the female body and notions of femininity.[4]  Her photos are often grounded in her own lived experiences of worship  and womanhood, especially the expression of maternity, desire and death,  which she expresses through manipulation and presentation of her  physical body.

Evelyn Politzer (Uruguay)
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Evelyn Politzer is a textile-fiber artist looking to convey nature’s plea for interconnectedness through yarn, thread, and fabric. Using traditional methods like knitting, crochet, and embroidery, Evelyn creates unconventional objects - from small 2D tapestries to monumental sculptural forms. She mainly works with hand-dyed, soft, natural fibers due to their unique tactile quality that allows for Evelyn to enjoy the passing of time through her sense of touch.
Her practice has roots in her native home of Uruguay - a country where sheep outnumber the people and where wool and other natural fibers are still an important tool for the livelihood of many, especially the women. The relationship between the fibers Politzer works with and with the place where she was born, evoke the comfort of belonging for her, no matter where she is.
Working in fiber art allows Evelyn to foster community and bring people together to knit for different positive causes. From 2016 - 19, Politzer co-organized “World Wide Knit in Public Day” in Miami, Fl; and during the 2020 pandemic, Evelyn felt compelled to create a platform for others to share their textile art journey. Together, with two other local artists, and with the mission to educate and advance the contemporary fiber arts community in Miami, the Fiber Artists-Miami Association (FAMA) was born.
Womanhood and the fragility of the natural environment are recurring themes of Politzer's work. An eternal optimist, Politzer strives to show a sense of the unexpected while treating subjects that touch her deeply, such as motherhood and nature. Exploring materials, texture and color, she connects her mind to her hands and heart.

MaiYap (Panamá)

Born in the Republic of Panama of Chinese parents, MaiYap has been able to magically blend East and West on canvas. Within the walls of her parent’s home, she was immersed in the beauty, balance and perfection of millennial traditions passed on from one generation to another. Once outside these walls, her senses were overcome by the amazing colors, sounds and energy of the Tropics. Panama provided a bustling backdrop of exciting people, places, and music. Most importantly, its natural surroundings provided the perfect artistic inspiration to imagine and create her magnificent flowers and unique landscapes. It also gave her the courage to voice her concerns and fears about our planet’s welfare through her powerful environmental abstracts and social projects.

Magdalena Vélez (Estados Unidos - Puerto Rico)

Magdalena Velez is an emerging artist who grew up in Brooklyn, New York and lives in Miami. She is a self-schooled artist, and her art aesthetic is exciting and colorful with bold expressionist intention. Influenced by her artistic environs growing up, and studies of art history, Magdalena was an artist as a young child and developed her intuition for art making, as her spiritual practice. Exploring the artist’s mind, Magdalena Velez is an Abstract Expressionist whose artistic vision for seeing in art means the integration of internal knowledge and our outside reality. Her artworks express the energies, changes and integrations that make for possibilities and impossibilities of her imagination. As an expressionist, Magdalena inspires to impart a sense of conscious personal empowerment of emotional-spiritual intuition via a transference of energies, as insight and possibilities within space.Coming from a line of spiritualists and her experiences, Magdalena Velez explores her artistic work to energetically transfer a sense of possibilities and believes that within the visual language that is art, there is the spirit of transformation and change for the viewer. The artist intends to compose meaningful artworks that can function as a catalyst, through other possibilities of self for the viewer.

ENLACES EXTERNOS:
https://www.artcronica.com/ac-noticias/mocaa-american-heartbeats/

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