CUBANEO
PRESS RELEASE
Acclaimed exhibition by Western Massachusetts-based artist Mark Guglielmo to travel to Cuba for the first time
NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS — An homage to the people of Cuba by Western Massachusetts-based artist Mark Guglielmo, Cubaneo will travel to the island for the first time in November 2026. The acclaimed exhibition features 18 large-scale photo-collage portraits, interviews, and field recordings celebrating the lives of everyday Cubans. Since its 2017 debut, Cubaneo has traveled to five museums and galleries across the United States and will be mounted at El Museo Histórico Provincial de Cienfuegos in Cienfuegos, Cuba.
To create this project, Guglielmo visited Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, Havana, Viñales, Cienfuegos, and Trinidad de Cuba on three successive trips to the island between 2015 and 2017. While there, he photographed and interviewed local Cubans he met on his journey. Each collage measures 5 to 12 feet wide and was handmade by taping together hundreds, sometimes thousands, of individual 4x6-inch photographs. Neither a computer nor Photoshop was used. View a selection of the artworks here. Culled from dozens of audio interviews the artist conducted in Spanish, the exhibition features diverse Cuban voices and perspectives.
In June 2017, Cubaneo debuted at A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts. Curated by Waleska Santiago-Centeño, it quickly became the most attended show in the gallery’s 45-year history, with over 3,500 visitors in 26 days. The exhibition then traveled to Boston’s Villa Victoria Center for the Arts (2017), where it was curated by David Guerra; The Williston Northampton School, Easthampton, Massachusetts (2018); The Loveland Museum, Loveland, Colorado (2018); and von Auersberg Gallery, Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Massachusetts (2019).
For his introductory panel, Cuban-born curator David Guerra wrote, “Guglielmo’s images are a record of the ethnic and cultural heterogeneity that characterizes the Cuban people by going beyond what is commonly defined today as Cuban. ‘Cubaneo’ is the term used in Cuba to refer not to the Cuban identity but to the ways that identity is expressed. ‘Cubaneo’ then includes all the idiosyncrasies of Cubans including its reflection in Cubans’ unique contemporary language. While access to what’s Cuban may be achieved without even visiting the island, exposure to ‘cubaneo’ can only be achieved in Cuba, immersed and surrounded by Cubans. Only then can their behavior, including negative attitudes, their interactions and aspirations, their feelings and ways of being and living reveal itself. These collages capture the essence of ‘cubaneo’, leaving behind the foreign and naïve views often used by other photographers looking to depict this island and its people.”
El Museo Histórico Provincial de Cienfuegos is located at 2702 Avenida 54, between Calle 27 and Sta. Isabel in Cienfuegos, Cuba. It is open Tuesday-Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 9am-12pm, closed Monday. For more information and high resolution press photos, please contact the artist at info@markguglielmo.com or visit his website at https://markguglielmo.com
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mark Guglielmo (b. 1970, Queens, New York) is a New York-born, Northampton-based contemporary artist who creates layered figurative works that incorporate a diverse range of materials to explore themes of race, class, migration, and power. Rooted in his New York upbringing, Guglielmo utilizes collage as a central element of his practice, connecting his art to his background in hip-hop through techniques like sampling, truncating, and reconfiguring existing materials into new compositions. Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized at the United Nations, New York; The Loveland Museum, Colorado; Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, Boston; and Vermont Center for Photography. His other significant project, "Portraits of My People" (2021-2025), honors his Southern Italian lineage while addressing the complexities of identity and the fraught nature of race-making in America.
PRESS LINKS
https://artnewengland.com/blogs/mark-guglielmos-portrait-of-contemporary-cuba/
https://recorder.com/2017/06/07/artbeat-060817-10542661/
https://bigredandshiny.org/36696/cuban-complexity-mark-guglielmos-cubaneo/
https://thetakemagazine.com/mark-guglielmo-artist-2/
https://www.baystatebanner.com/2017/10/25/cubaneo/
https://www.wwlp.com/massappeal/cuba-in-transition-narrative-perspective-an-art-show/
https://valleyadvocate.com/2017/05/22/cuba-in-transition/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh1b5VrO_d4