DAYTONA BEACH, FL.- The Museum of Arts & Sciences opened the Ladies First: The Art of Carlos Luna exhibition for guests to experience. The exhibit features work by one of the foremost contemporary Cuban American artists, Carlos Luna, who is part of a generation of Latin American artists who embrace their strong heritage and traditions while reinventing themselves along the way. Luna tells stories and narrates fables through detailed and richly painted canvases, mixed media works on paper, lavish tapestries, sculptures, and installations.

Ladies First, curated by Carol Damian Ph.D., former director of the Frost Art Museum and chair person of FIU’s Department of Art and Art History, highlights one of the foremost recurring themes in Luna’s work. “The women – the ladies – always come first, whether they are the subject or included as a subtle or obvious reference – the power behind the throne,” Dr. Damian remarked in an essay on the exhibition. Ladies First: The Art of Carlos Luna, the first major exhibition of Luna’s works in many years, is an homage to women and femininity. It is a tribute to creative power, strength, and delicacy as he honors the women in his life: his grandmother, mother, wife, and daughter.

"The Museum of Arts and Sciences is honored to have this latest major exhibition of the work of Carlos Luna, one of Miami's most well-known Cuban American artists who has a distinctive style all his own,” said MOAS Chief Curator and Gary R. Libby Curator of Art, Ruth Grim. “With tinges of Picasso's Cubism combined with the traditional arts of his native Cuba and Mexico where he lived for many years, Luna's colorful, vibrant and animated works invite the viewer to participate in the dance of life. This exhibition contains many works by Luna that are nothing less than masterpieces of his style but, in particular, a stunning new series that he has created by painting on beautiful, handmade amate paper from Mexico are exciting additions to a body of work that contains paintings, mosaics, tapestries, ceramics and other mediums. Reaching for new forms of expression, Carlos Luna's art is always evolving."

Ladies First: The Art of Carlos Luna will be on display in the Edward E. and Jane B. Ford Gallery at the Museum of Arts & Sciences through April 24, 2022.