Belkis Ayon

BELKIS AYÓN MANSO (Cuba 1967 - New York, 1999).
"Tranquila".
Linocut, copy 147/300.
Corresponding to the folder for the exhibition "La huella múltiple", Havana, 1999.
Signed and justified in pencil.

Belkis Ayón explored the Afro-Cuban religious fraternity of Abakuá through her androgynous figures without distinctive features in mysterious monochromatic prints like the one shown here. The face is hidden behind a lattice of arabesques. The linocut, which was part of the group show "La huella múltiple", is part of a retinue of phantom figures that burst into Abakuá ceremonies to breathe into them feminine spirits that have traditionally been maginated by male preeminence.

Ayón researched Abakuá history extensively, with special emphasis on the religion's most prominent female figure, Princess Sikan. According to a central Abakuan myth, Sikan once accidentally caught an enchanted fish, which imparted great power to those who heard its voice. When she brought the fish to her father, he warned her to keep quiet and never speak of it again. She did divulge the information, however, to a leader of another tribe. Her punishment was a death sentence. This story is presented in the form of imposed silence in her work, an important theme. The concept of imposed silence is evident in the lack of mouths on all his figures.

To date, Ayon has been the only prominent artist to create an extensive body of work based on the Abakuan society. Because the society itself had created very few visual representations of their myths, Ayon had great freedom to visually interpret their myths. Numerous Abakuan rituals are represented in his collographs, many of which are based on Christian and Afro-Cuban traditions.

Ayon's work has been widely shown internationally in group exhibitions in Canada, South Korea, the Netherlands and Spain (2010). In 1993, he exhibited at the 16th Venice Biennale and won the international prize at the International Biennale of Graphics in Maastricht, the Netherlands. In 1998, Ayón received four residencies in the United States working at Temple University's Tyler School of Art, the Philadelphia School of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design and the Brandywine Workshop. His work can now be found in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2016-2017, the Fowler Museum organized Ayon's first solo museum exhibition with the help of his estate; the exhibition subsequently traveled to El Museo del Barrio in New York and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City.