Artist Talk with Alexandre Arrechea and Odette Casamayor-Cisneros

Alexandre Arrechea, born in 1970 in Trinidad, Cuba, graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana in 1994. Renowned for his diverse artistic expressions, including large-scale installations, sculptures, watercolor drawings, and videos, Arrechea explores themes of history, memory, politics, and urban power dynamics. His site-specific approach delves into the ideological and philosophical legacies of contexts, fostering engaging interactions with audiences. Through his examination of architectural spaces, he unveils the cultural resonances inherent in design and social value, highlighting the latent conflicts within structures.

Arrechea co-founded the Cuban collective Los Carpinteros in 1991 before pursuing a solo career. Notable recent works include Nolimits—a series of monumental sculptures exposed on Park Avenue, Manhattan (2013); Katrina Chairs (2016); "Dreaming with Lions," an immersive rotunda at Faena Miami Beach (2020); and collaborations, such as Hexagon Garden with Balmain, Miami (2022), and Black Sabbath, with Carlos Acosta, the Cuban-born director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, United Kingdom (2023). Learn more »

Dr. Odette Casamayor-Cisneros is associate professor of Latin American and Caribbean cultural studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and the inaugural Roberto C. Goizueta Distinguished Presidential Fellow at the University of Miami's Cuban Heritage Collection.

She is the author of the 2013 monograph "Utopia, dystopia e ingravidez: reconfiguraciones cosmológicas en la narrativa postsoviética cubana" and the collection of stories "Una casa en los Catskills" from 2016. Her numerous award-winning academic, journalistic, and literary works are featured in renowned publications, such as Small Axe, Transition, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, Cuban Studies, Bulletin of Latin American Review, and Cahiers d'études africaines.

Casamayor-Cisneros earned a Ph.D. in arts and literature at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, and she holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Havana in Cuba. Fellowships and grants from, among others, Harvard University, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization have supported her research. Learn more » 


This event is co-sponsored by ArtesMiami. 


Title image: "Eight Different Problems from Corner Series," 2019, by Alexandre Arrechea. Image courtesy of the artist.