Repeating Islands

Michelle Wojcik is the owner of Galería Cubana, the only gallery in New England to deal exclusively in contemporary Cuban art. The gallery opened in Provincetown in June 2007, featuring work Woicik got on consignment from the Cuban Art Space in New York. Since, then Wojcick has opened a second shop in Boston, in an airy space in the SoWa district. Wojcik sees her mission as two-fold: to bring exposure and financial support to Cuban artists and to educate US patrons about the exciting work being produced on the island. She points to recent coverage of the Havana Biennial art exhibition as proof that “increasingly, Cuban art is getting recognized internationally, and respected.” [On this topic see out earlier posts The 10th Havana Biennial and U.S.-Cuba thaw in full swing in arts world.]

Wojcik became fascinated with Cuba while studying for a master’s degree in applied anthropology at American University, where she became  involved in a project with the Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales in Miramar. She later worked as an assistant director to the Cuba Project at the World Policy Institute in New York, spending a summer in Havana in 2002. “That was the point when I really fell in love with the artwork,” said Wojcik, 36. “I was taken by the unbelievable creativity of the people.”

Her plans to launch her gallery crystallized when she took a class in entrepreneurship and was asked by an instructor what she really wanted out of her next job. “Well, if I really did want I wanted to do, I’d go down to Cuba and bring back art,” recalled Wojcik. “And he said, ‘Well, maybe that’s what you should do.” Her current travel license, one of approximately 30 issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control to galleries and museums in the US, allows Wojcik multiple Cuba trips a year to purchase art.

For more see the article at http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/house/articles/2009/05/28/an_art_filled_obsession_with_cuba/

Image: Elagua (2008), collograph on paper by Anais Triana, can be g=found on the gallery’s website at http://lagaleriacubana.com/artist.aspx?id=24