The Miami-Dade Public Library System presents Margarita Cano’s Explorations. The Library will be presenting the display from July 14th to January 15, 2016 at the Main Library auditorium in Downtown, Miami located at 101 West Flagler Street. There will be an opening reception with the artist on Saturday, August 29th from 2 – 5 p.m.
Margarita Cano was born in Havana, Cuba February 27, 1932. Cano arrived in the United States on October, 1962. She worked at the Miami-Dade Public Library as a Community Relations and Art Services Coordinator. In 1993, she started painting full-time and creating one-of-a-kind artist books.
Cano indicates that “My Cuban roots are reflected in my art work. It tells and retells my personal vision of Cuba. Installations of my painting visually narrate the Cuban drama: an island frozen in time surrounded by a seawall where Cubans wait for change. I document this quest for democracy and freedom through allegories and metaphors.”
Margarita Cano transforms memory into magic. Biblical and art historical allusions monumentalize the daily grievances of contemporary life in Cuba. Cano’s work is reminiscent of the illuminated manuscripts of the High Middle Ages. Distant memory and loss have a way of transforming even the prosaic into a magical recollection. In Cano’s work, the idealized landscapes of her beloved island serve as setting for the interaction of the sacred and the mundane. Throughout her work, the tension between surface ornamentation and three-dimensionality is enhanced by the rich jewel-like finish that belies the presence of the brush. This tension strengthens the narrative content of the work. It is in the storytelling that Cano invites the viewer to partake of here memory and her magic.
Event is free to the public. For more information please call 305-375-2665.
About the Miami‑Dade Public Library System
The Miami-Dade Public Library System (MDPLS), a recipient of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, serves as a community center and learning place where the Miami-Dade community meets to exchange ideas, learn, share, and create. The Library strives to ensure that all residents, regardless of socioeconomics, will be enriched through access to materials, technology, art and culture and programs so that they may develop the skills they need to create and produce innovations for the 21st century. Through its 48 locations, bookmobiles, special services, website (www.mdpls.org) and MDPLS iLibrary app, the library proudly serves more than 7 million annual visitors. In the more than 40 years of serving the community, the MDPLS continues to experience tremendous change and growth, evolving with the technological needs and requirements of its diverse community.
