ArtSlant – Text and Context
by Eduardo Alexander Rabel
Writing in ARTslant Miami, the online magazine, critic Eduardo Alexander Rabel calls “Vincench vs Vincench: A Dissident Dialogue from Cuba,” an “outstanding solo exhibition,” noting that “to be an artist in Cuba and to make work that focuses directly on the themes of dissidence and exile…takes courage, as well as creativity.”
Rabel also notes the universality of the exhibition’s themes: “the variety of languages that are represented reminds us that dissenters play an important role in all societies.”
Political implications of the paintings are apparent to the writer, who states that “An even stronger statement is made by the series Cuba y la Noche, consisting of 100 small canvases, each 8” square…” whose negative space “is an obliterating black, reminiscent of sensitive documents that have been redacted or censored by an oppressive government.”
The self-described son of a Cuban exile, Rabel concludes his review with the observation that the artist’s “Reconciliation Tree” installation is topped by “a single, unvarnished star, recalling the single white star in the Cuban flag—the national flag that is beloved by all Cubans, no matter where they live and no matter what their ideology.”