Cuban Artist Kadir López Nieves Pays Homage to NYC with Intense New Exhibition

Famed, Cuban artist Kadir López Nieves, continues his US exhibition tour with 212, a new collection at Cavalier Gallery in Manhattan, premiering June 9th, 2022 through June 18th, 2022.

An homage to the “greatest, most diverse city on Earth,” López’ solo works combine various mediums to celebrate the glory, complexity, and rich history of New York City, identified by its coveted area code “212.” His Signs collection uses vintage street signs from pre-revolutionary Cuba as a canvas to highlight influential 1960s and 1970s protagonists, including the five families in New York City’s organized crime landscape. The collection aims to tell a new story about our obsession with power and consumption, as well as serve as a mirror to the past. Or present …

“I selected signs that embody a commercialized or historical period. They were then superimposed with vintage photos from that time– whether referential or not, extracted from public archives or albums. Finally, I fused a third layer of paint,” says López. “It’s my abstract way of making sense of how history informs the present.”

Meyer Lansky

López collects and compiles images and graphic information with the voracity of a historian, then allows his artistic side to shape his mediums into works of art with “strong metaphors that capture timeless themes.” As for his choice of enamel signs as a canvas? “ Emotional advertising is at the core of marketing effectiveness. A piece of high art or a high billboard? Can we elicit the same feelings from a sign as, say, the Mona Lisa? Is a painting in the Louvre more emotive than a giant billboard on I-95? That’s one of the many conversations I want to initiate.”

212 will also include Kadir’s new “Island” series of oil-on-canvas compositions depicting Manhattan, Long Island, Ellis Island, and Staten Island. These canvases incorporate López’s illuminated neon detailing. López, who worked out of his Havana studio until 2021, has a clear connection to island culture. “When you are isolated, you fight to flourish in an interconnected way,” he says. López is now dividing his time between Europe, the US, and Cuba. “For decades I traveled extensively, but always kept my work studio in Cuba. But our diaspora is everywhere and we must draw inspiration from more than a fixed place and time.”

212 is López’ second US exhibit this year. His first, Signs, took place in Palm Beach and received resounding critical acclaim and media coverage. Most of the works were sold and López received numerous commissions from major collectors. Cavalier Galleries, located in New York CIty, Palm Beach, Greenwich and Nantucket, exclusively represents Kadir López in the United States and sells his work at all its galleries. Later this month, on June 23rd, López will be exhibiting at Cavalier Galleries inNantucket, with a collection that explores the myth of the region’s settlers past and present, aptly titled She Blows.

ABOUT KADIR LÓPEZ-NIEVES

López grew up in the Cuban city of Las Tunas and studied in Havana’s most prestigious art school, Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), receiving the highest entrance marks of his class. “ISA is housed in one of the most beautiful and architecturally significant buildings in Cuba, shaped like a woman’s womb. It is literally and figuratively a place that births artists in Cuba,” says López.

Throughout his career, López has explored the concept of time and the global zeitgeist through various mediums–whether 2-D or sculptural. He is collected around the world by royal families and Hollywood stars, former presidents and current CEOs, including Vanessa Williams, President Obama, Juanes and Benicio del Torro. López has received many first-place prizes in Cuba throughout his career and his work is featured in public and private collections around the world, including museums in Austria, Colombia, and the United States. He has a rich set of auction records from the United States, Spain, and Cuba and has been exhibited in solo shows, group exhibitions, and global art fairs since the 1990s. In 2019, López was commissioned by the SAG awards to paint a 100 ft mural for the show, and also painted live during the broadcast.

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Tags: Art, art exhibit, Cuba, Kadir López Nieves, NYC

About the Author

Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.