This exhibition is the second of two parts that brings together work associated with Cuba's most prestigious art school, the Instituto Superior de Arte. Part 1 was Photography and Photo-based art. Part 2 includes painting, works on paper, sculpture and mixed media works on both canvas and paper. The two exhibits focus on the artists who teach and study at ISA, as well as those who have graduated from the school. ISA opened in 1976, to become part of the national schools of art in Cubanacán, the site of the Havana Country Club before the revolution. (The main clubhouse now houses the university-level school of music.)

Among the artists are the fine painter Luis Camejo, represented by three oil paintings and two watercolors; two of Cuba's best printmakers, Sandra Ramos and Ibrahim Miranda (one of Ibrahim's pieces is a work on paper done while an art student at ISA); Jairo Castellanos has two amazing acrylics on canvas, equal to those in part 1 of this exhibit; Ernesto Benitez's works on paper done with ashes, charcoal and other materials are exceptional. Kdir (Kadir López), one of Cuba's best young painters, has work in the show that includes watercolor, acrylic on wooden pins and 4 fiberglass sculptures. Several of the student works are as good as their professors' works: Yordanys Jimenez is represented by three works made of string, glass, found objects and paint, as well as by a painting on canvas and a three dimensional work of glass and string. Humberto Planas' drawings on paper for installation projects make you wish for their immediate creation. Yuri Santana's portraits, so whimsically produced on metal pails in the last exhibit, are this time seen on a metal fan and in a beautiful drawing; Neils Jenry's drawings are conceptual and surprising. There is more: Ernesto Peña Pou's bright oils; Rubén Fuentes' somber and somehow exhilarating grey shadows; Marilu Martinez' elegant works on handmade paper; Jacqueline Brito and Yamilys Brito are each represented by earlier works never shown here before. Franklin Alvarez's remarkable watercolors are supplemented by two oils, one a comical corner painting that is a gentle commentary on sexism.

At ISA students can learn computer graphics and digital imaging, music, dance, set design, video and television and most importantly, the visual arts. Unlike most universities, the students who enter the five year university program, who come to Havana from throughout the island, are already considered professionals; they are selected through a rigorous examination of their portfolios. A very high percentage of graduates from the school become nationally and internationally known. Going through the roster of Cuba's best-known artists, one finds very few who did not attend ISA.

In this exhibit, we have included several graduates of ISA who are among the best-known of Cuba's younger artists: Jacqueline Brito, Yamilys Brito and Luis Camejo (who all teach at ISA), Kadir López, Ibrahim Miranda, and Sandra Ramos. Other recent graduates in the show who are fast gaining strong reputations are Franklin Alvarez, Ernesto Benitez, and Jairo Castellanos, whose work in this show is exceptionally strong.

Sandra Dupret, curator of the first ISA show that the Cuban Art Space co-sponsored, at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery at Wayne State University, wrote on the occasion of the opening in September, 2004 that "there is a fine line of difference between the works of students and faculty/alumni, only defined by a sense of maturity in the work produced." For those who see this exhibit, it will be next to impossible to differentiate between the works of some of the students and their professors: the complicated mixed media works of Yordanys Jiménez, for example, or the drawings for projected installations by Humberto Planas are so sophisticated and beautifully executed that one feels the art is that of mature artists.

In Cuba: The Next Generation, we see proof that Cuba's artists represent one of the strongest and most enduring legacies of the Revolution.

Our thanks to those who helped put this exhibit together, especially Luis Camejo and others at ISA, and those who helped get it in place in the gallery: Maya Berry, Ralph Casado, Judi Crespo, Yvonne Lynch, Marcos Meconi, Sahnet Pérez-Stubbs, Judy Schmidt, and Kewannah Wallace. And our special gratitude to Oliver Hirsch Fine Arts!