MIAMI, FLA.- Miami Dade College’s Hialeah Campus Art Gallery is presenting Held Hostage by the Sea (Cautivos del Mar) exhibition by Cuban artist R.G. Serrano.
The exhibition is an impressive tribute to all who have fought for democracy, freedom and human rights, including Cuba’s Ladies in White and the Tugboat March 13, among other tragic events where lives were lost while crossing the sea.
Born in Havana, Cuba in 1963, Serrano immigrated to Ecuador in 1993. He then moved to Miami in 1999. In 1980, he attended the Instituto Jose Marti to become a building technician. In 1992, he attended the Instituto Superior Pedagógico Enrique Jose Varona, where he intended to receive a degree in Plastic Arts Appreciation, but due to his move to Ecuador he did not graduate. About 1988, Serrano started drawing and painting as a self-taught artist while working at Servando Cabrera Moreno Art Gallery, where he worked for 12 years as a mounting technician.
During this time, Serrano also directed a workshop called "Fantasia Para la Creatividad" with the collaboration of the San Alejandro Art School. The workshop was created exclusively to help children with behavioral problems as well as deaf/mute children develop their creativity. Serrano was also a production assistant for the theater with director Carlos Diaz, served as a curator for several art exhibits, and as a director for a few shows.
One day while visiting a mutual friend, Serrano met Cuban film director Marisol Trujillo, who suggested he produce his first solo exhibition and offered to write her input in the exhibition's catalog. The foreword of this catalog was written by well-known theater director Lester Veira. From that moment, Serrano worked non-stop on various projects within the plastic arts. Serrano’s drawings, paintings and sculptures have been shown in Havana (Cuba), Miami, California, Yucatan (Mexico), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Quito (Ecuador). The Cuban artist utilizes many different resources and materials in his creations. Serrano's concept, inspiration and imagination involves the viewer in a narrative way to a level of reflection were he re-creates elements of daily life. His works are immersed in a world of fantasy and daydreams but always keeping the vision of his environment.
Serrano's most current work, Held Hostage by the Sea, makes the viewer reflect on the experience when one migrates to a far away and unknown country. It is a tribute to everyone seeking democracy that took to the sea leaving the lives they knew, their family and their land behind. Some who even lost their lives while crossing the treacherous sea.
