On view February 6, 2025, through July 6, 2025

Alimenta a mi gallo y se alimenta mi espíritu (Feed My
Rooster and Feed My Spirit), 1998
Oil in canvas
Framed: 80 x 60 x 3 inches
The Rice Collection

Untitled, 1973
Oil on canvas
Framed: 36 x 32 ½ x 3 inches
The Rice Collection

Más de lo mismo y uno de necio (More of the Same and
One of the Foolishness), 2000
Ink, conte crayon, white chalk, and pastel on amate paper
Framed: 50 x 97 x 4 inches
The Rice Collection
When it comes to art, the Rice Family’s first visit to Cuba in 2013 was as memorable as it was pivotal to their vocation as collectors. Cuban art became a gateway to embrace the heart and mind of a fascinating culture and its people. Collecting was no longer a hobby, but a passion, and over time the Rices would fall completely “under the spell” of Cuban art. For a decade, Susie and Mitchell’s Cuban Art Collection has been growing consistently in scope and quality, now treasuring the works of more than seventy artists from different generations and aesthetics.
The exhibition deviates from a traditional historical narrative and is presented as a compass rather than a timeline―a map for a journey through the varying themes, genres, and styles that align with the sensibilities of two generations of collectors in the Rice family. This first of six sections, The Language of Forms and the Forms of Language includes early works that demonstrate an affinity for abstraction among some Cuban pioneers of modernism in the late 1940s. The works in The Prophet’s Dream delineate both political and social awareness and the critical communal identity present in Cuban art through generations subsequent to the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
Cuba is described as an island-nation, a term that refers not only to its physical and geographic properties―the cluster of islands, islets and keys that form the biggest archipelago in the Antilles―but also the people who inhabit it. The works in The Great Journey: Archives express the trauma of national exile and the artists’ relationship to Cuba. The section Sensory Landscapes of Memory and Desire delineates the more hedonistic and whimsical imagery that percolates through Cuban contemporary art. These works exude eroticism, playfulness, intimate longings, and explorations into the depths of memory.
The Musings of Narcissus: Through the Looking Glass and What the Artist Found There, the fifth thematic section, examines a range of self-referential works of art and offers a glimpse into the process and philosophy of Cuban artists exploring self-representation and the body. Lastly, The Spirit of the Real, the Reality of the Spirit presents work born of the artists’ spiritual experiences. In most of the works in this section, mythological and symbolic elements from African-Cuban religions underlie or are at the foreground of both the narrative and the visual structure of the artworks.
Under the Spell of the Palm Tree: The Rice Collection of Cuban Art features the work of:
Abel Barroso
Adrián Fernandez
Alberto Lago
Alex Hernández
Alexi Torres
Alfredo Sosabravo
Ángel Ramírez & Jacqueline Maggi
Antonio Vidal
Belkis Ayón
Carlos Enríquez
Carlos Garaicoa
Cundo Bermúdez
Duo Ponjuán (René Francisco & Eduardo Ponjuán)
Emilio Sánchez
Enrique Riverón
Ernesto Javier Fernández
Ernesto Leal
Esterio Segura
Frank Mujica
Glenda León
Inti Hernández
Iván Capote
Jesús Hernández-Güero
Jorge Lavoy
José Alberto Figueroa
José Ángel Toirac
José Ángel Vincench
José Bedia
José Rosabal
Juan Roberto Diago Querol
Kádir López
Lázaro Saavedra
Liset Castillo
Mabel Poblet
Manuel Mendive
Marco Castillo
Mario Carreño
Pedro de Oraá
Pedro Pablo Oliva
Rafael Soriano
René Francisco Rodríguez
Rene Portocarrero
Reynier Leyva Novo (Chino Novo)
Ricardo Miguel Hernández
Roberto Diago
Roberto Fabelo
Salvador Corratgé
Sandra Ramos
Tania Bruguera
Tomás Sánchez
Waldo Díaz-Balart
Wifredo Lam

The Farm, 1945
Oil on canvas
Framed: 40 x 46 x 3 inches
The Rice Collection

Presente en tu vida (Present in Your Life), 2011
Mixed media on canvas
Framed: 51 x 39 ¼ x 2 inches
The Rice Collection