Between the Real and the Imagined: Abstract Art from CINTAS Fellows explores the language of abstraction and its many variants represented in the work of Cintas Visual Arts Fellows across different temporal moments and generations. The selected works range from the pioneering geometric abstraction of Rafael Soriano, Mario Carreño and José Mijares executed in Cuba in the 1950s, the concrete art of Carmen Herrera and constructive experiments of Zilia Sánchez produced in the diaspora, to the hard-edge abstraction of Fernando García from the 1980s and the more recent multi-dimensional installations by Cuban-Americans María Martínez-Cañas, Leyden Rodríguez Casanova, and Vanessa Díaz, to name only a few.

Together, the works featured in this exhibition – each with their distinct pictorial propositions and conceptual approaches to form, space and materiality – map how modern and contemporary artists in Cuba and in the diaspora have engaged with and challenged non-representational practices from mid-century to the present.

This exhibit is organized by the CINTAS Foundation, presented by Coral Gables Museum and curated by independent curator and PhD candidate Elizabeth Cerejido.