“In 1965, yearning for adventure, I joined a trip being organized from New York City to Havana….  Eighty-five “Heroic Students and Artists,” as we came to be known in Cuba, flew on El Al Airlines to Paris, where we walked down long corridors and through a forbidden doorway to board a plane for the Czech Republic. Retracing our route over New York, we landed thirty hours later at José Martin Airport, where crowds of cheering, uniformed youth bearing flowers greeted us.”  Thus begins the remarkable journey by Catherine Merrill into a life long interest in Cuban ceramics. 

Catherine was first introduced to the Cuban ceramics movement during this trip. She spent two months on the island meeting artists and becoming familiar with the beautiful interpretive trends in Cuban ceramics and the other plastic arts. It was also at this point she began her life long research into the ceramic movements, styles and artists of Cuba. She has returned numerous times to Cuba both as a researcher and as an artist. While participating in the Encuentro Terracota (international artistic cultural exchange) she met Antonio Lewis Belgrove, Nelson Dominguez and Alberto Lescay.

Proyecto Arte del Fuego (Art of Fire Project) was born in 2002 out of the friendships, and artistic collaborations, that developed at the Encuentro Terracota. The Proyecto Arte del Fuego is an international residency program that brings together Cuban Artists with Artists from the Americas and Europe to work in collaborative programs. These residencies encourage communication and creative growth through the language of art. The Proyecto Arte del Fuego is sponsored by the Fundacion Caguayo in Santiago, Cuba and the Estudio-Galeria Los Oficios in Havana. Learn more about the Proyecto Arte del Fuego.

SOMOS - SOMOS
Mantanzas, Cuba
January 24-February 23, 2007

This two person exhibition features the work of co-founders of the Proyecto Arte del Fuego, Catherine Merrill and Antonio Lewis. There are both works in clay and on paper in the exhibit.

BEYOND THE EMBARGO /  CUBA-US COLLABORATIONS
San Francisco, CA 94111
June 8-July 20, 2006

An exhibition of works in clay and on paper by a group of prominent Cuban and American artists who have continued to work and exhibit together internationally, despite the continuing U.S Embargo against Cuba. This exhibition underscores the power of the universal language of art to break through external differences of nationality, politics, culture and ethnicity.

The international world has long been passionately interested in Cuban culture, yet little is known about the visual arts outside of Havana, particularly the unique and flourishing development of Cuban ceramics.  This unique cross-cultural collaboration would broaden awareness of the ceramic arts outside of Cuba.  It would be an inspiration for international ceramic artists to learn how in Cuba the medium of ceramics is more fully integrated into the full spectrum of the Fine Arts, rather than being marginalized by the hierarch of the art vs. craft debate.  In this the Cubans have led current trends.

 

© 2003-2008 Catherine Merrill