Alex Hernández Dueñas

Octavia Art Gallery is pleased to present new works by Cuban artist Alex Hernández Dueñas. The exhibition, which includes paintings, glass etchings and works on paper, will open with a reception on Thursday, May 14th from 5 to 8pm and will run until June 11th.

In his work, Alex Hernández Dueñas investigates themes of status, privilege and hierarchical structures within society through images of pristine pools, manicured lawns, sleek homes and country clubs. Influenced by a wide range of artists, including David Hockney and Richard Diebenkorn, Dueñas’s flattened, simplified and colorful handling of compositions creates atmospheres that are dreamlike and often times eerily void of human life.

The idealized images symbolize aesthetic taste, expectations, and desire, reflecting the Cuban dream of Miami as a place of abundance, opportunity and constant sunshine. This perspective exposes the decades of Cuban isolation and its citizens’ lack of awareness of the current realities of American life. In his new series of glass etchings, Dueñas sketches architectural images of American and Cuban golf and yacht clubs complete with polished landscapes and towering palm trees. However, these delicate works only exist as shadows when light is projected through their surface, elusive like the exclusive institutions they illustrate.

Hernández Dueñas is a graduate of the Higher Institute of Art (ISA) and is a member of The National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). He is the recipient of the Danish Art Agency Scholarship for artists and curators in Copenhagen, Denmark and the Peter and Irene Ludwig Scholarship for artists and curators in Aachen, Germany. He was a resident with the Christoph Merrian Foundation in Basel, Switzerland and Cleveland Institute of Art. His work has been exhibited at the 10th, 11th and 12th Havana Biennials.