Miami-Dade Public Library System presents Margarita Cano’s Explorations

(Miami, FL – June 11, 2015) The Miami‑Dade Public Library System presents Margarita Cano’s Explorations. The Library will be presenting the display from July 14 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 29 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.

For more information please call 305‑375‑2665.