• Armando M. Calzado
    Armando M. Calzado
    La Patera (The Raft)
    2010
    Old american car, 45 legs made of polyester resin.
    Mattress Factory Museum

ISCP resident Armando M. Calzado in Queloides

Queloides: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art is an art exhibit that seeks to contribute to current debates about the persistence of racism in contemporary Cuba and elsewhere in the world. The exhibition was hosted at the Centro Wifredo Lam in Havana (April 16 - May 31, 2010), then transferred to the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, PA (October 15, 2010 - February 27, 2011). The twelve artists, including ISCP resident, Armando Marino Calzado are renowned for their critical work on issues of race, discrimination, and identity. Several of them collaborated in three important exhibits in Havana between 1997 and 1999 (titled “Keloids I”, “Keloids II”, and “Neither Musicians nor Athletes”). The last two were curated by the late Cuban art critic Ariel Ribeaux. All these exhibits dealt with issues of race and racism in contemporary Cuba, issues that had been taboo in public debates in the island for decades. “Keloids” are wound-induced, pathological scars. Although any wound may result in keloids, many people in Cuba believe that the black skin is particularly susceptible to them. Thus the title evokes the persistence of racial stereotypes, on the one hand, and the traumatic process of dealing with racism, discrimination, and centuries of cultural conflict, on the other hand. Queloides includes several art forms--paintings, photographs, installations, sculptures, videos--and offers novel ways to ridicule and to dismantle the so-called racial differences. 

Published on December 31, 1969 by | Tags: Resident exhibitions, Cuba, Pittsburgh, Mattress Factory Art Museum