Puerto Rican artist Antonio Martorell is one of the guests at by the 34^th edition of the Festival of New Latin American Cinema, which is going on right now in Havana, Cuba. This week he shared a retrospective of his print work at Casa de las Américas in the solo exhibition “Velando, mamá, velando.” He has also donated a series of his prints for the Haydee Santamaría “Arte de Nuestra América” Collection. Among these works is a xilographic series entitled Playa Negra / Tar Beach and the striking “Bestiarium Politicum Portorricencis.” The artist is also presenting his latest book El velorio (no-vela) at the Centro Hispanoamericano de Cultura.

The artist expressed his great pleasure to be once again at the prestigious institution Casa de las Américas, which has previously exhibited his work and, in 2009, recognized his extraordinary career with the Haydee Santamaría medal.

Martorell thanked Yolanda Wood, director of Casa’s Center for Caribbean Studies, the director of the Visual Arts Department, Silvia Llanes, and the institution as a whole for its work with the Festival and their legacy in upholding and promoting Caribbean and Latin American culture throughout the years.

[Image above shows Playa Negra IV (Tar Beach IV), left; and Retrato del Artista cartero (Portrait of the Artist Postman), right; on left, one of the Playa Negra prints; from a 2011 exhibition “Labor,” at the Hunter College East Harlem Gallery in New York.]

For the original article by Orlando Victores Gattorno (in Spanish) and related articles on Martorell, see http://laventana.casa.cult.cu/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7247