1. Isabel Alem谩n Corrales, untitled, 1983, tempera on paper, 22,6 x 23 cm, Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne
Art Brut Cuba: The resident art of cuban outsiders
At the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, a remarkable exhibition unfold until April 27, 2025, titled "Art Brut CUBA", this curatorial project is more than a retrospective, it is an exploration of how Cuban outsider artists, past and present, navigate, state control, and personal vision to create expressive works of art.
With 266 pieces, including paintings, drawings, collages, assemblages, sculptures, and wearable objects, the exhibition brings together artists working outside the confines of academic training, institutional validation, and commercial demands.
At the heart of the show is a dialogue between two moments in time. In 1983, Lausanne hosted "Art Inventif 脿 Cuba", an exhibition curated by the Cuban artist Samuel Feij贸o. Feij贸o’s work in documenting and promoting rural, self-taught Cuban artists who played a crucial role in expanding the concept of Art Brut beyond Europe. Now, more than forty years later, this new exhibition both revisits Feij贸o’s legacy and expands upon it, incorporating contemporary Cuban outsider artists whose works reflect the changing landscape of Cuban art and society.
The exhibition captures an art form that is deeply tied to the realities of Cuban life. Due to persistent material shortages, these artists create with what is available, not what is ideal. They repurpose, transform, and breathe new life into discarded materials, developing an aesthetic that is both improvised and deeply intentional. The result is an artistic practice that is not merely about survival but about reclaiming agency in a system where resources are controlled, and artistic recognition is often reserved for those who conform to official narratives.
A historical reinterpretation
2. Samuel Feij贸o, Untitled, 1983, Gouache and ballpoint on paper, 70 x 100 cm, Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne
In 1983, the Collection de l’Art Brut welcomed an unprecedented exhibition: "Art Inventif 脿 Cuba". The show was orchestrated by Samuel Feij贸o, an important figure in Cuban intellectual life, who was a writer, poet, ethnologist, painter, and advocate of folk creativity. While Feij贸o spent his life studying and promoting Cuban vernacular artistic expressions, his work was centered on artists operating far from Havana’s elite cultural institutions, particularly in the province of the Villa Clara, where he founded Grupo Signos in the 1960s.
Feij贸o’s efforts aligned with Jean Dubuffet’s vision of Art Brut, who defined as an art made outside conventional academic frameworks, raw and unfiltered by trends or formal artistic training. Unlike European Art Brut, which was often linked to psychiatric institutions, Cuban outsider art emerged from a different context, deeply rooted in rural traditions, oral storytelling, and syncretic religious beliefs.
Four decades later, Art Brut CUBA revisits this exhibition, but with an expanded scope. Alongside works by Feij贸o’s original artists, the show introduces contemporary outsider creators from Cuba, many of whom have been championed by the Riera Studio in Havana. Founded in 2012 by Samuel Riera, this independent initiative supports artists who exist outside state-sanctioned art circles. Unlike the Cuban avant-garde, which is often aligned with state institutions, these outsider artists work in complete autonomy, their practices shaped by personal necessity rather than institutional acceptance.
Materiality
3. Ram贸n Moya Hern谩ndez, Untitled, undated, textile, wood, paint, plastic, wire, tarpaulin, synthetic foam, salvaged materials either sewn or assembled, variable dimensions, Riera Studio and Art Brut Project Cuba, La Havane
If there is one element that unites Cuban outsider art across time, it is the radical use of materials. In a country where even basic goods are difficult to obtain, let alone art supplies, artists have developed a culture of transformation, improvisation, and repurposing. The act of creating in Cuba is often one of reclaiming, of seeing potential in what others discard, of bending material limitations into artistic innovation.
For many Cuban Art Brut artists, canvas and paint are luxuries. Instead, they work on cardboard, flattened packaging, scraps of wood, torn pieces of cloth, metal sheets, and repurposed paper. These materials carry the traces of their former lives. A painting is rarely just a painting, it is also a map of its own making, marked by the remnants of past uses.
Collage plays a dominant role in Cuban Art Brut. Many artists incorporate newspaper clippings, torn magazines, old book pages, discarded advertisements, and cigarette packaging into their compositions. This layering technique is not simply a practical solution to material shortages; it also infuses the artwork with additional meaning, as bits of printed text or imagery become accidental poetry, reshaped into new contexts.
Assemblage and sculpture, too, are deeply influenced by material constraints. Many artists collect rusted metal parts, broken tools, driftwood, plastic waste, bottle caps, buttons, and electrical wires, transforming them into figures or abstract compositions.
Some of these works evoke spiritual effigies, their rough textures and found-object aesthetics resembling folk totems or ritual artifacts.
Wearable art is another striking feature of Cuban Art Brut. Artists craft handmade jewelry from bones, shells, recycled plastics, and fabric remnants, creating pieces that function as both adornment and artistic statement. Some of these works are rooted in Afro-Cuban spiritual traditions, their designs echoing the amulets and charms used in Santer铆a and Palo Monte. Others are more playful, turning discarded consumer goods into ironic reinterpretations of fashion.
What emerges from this engagement with material scarcity is an art form that is inherently tied to survival and resilience. These artists do not merely create with what they have; they redefine the value of objects, turning what is overlooked or abandoned into something deeply personal and expressive.
Themes and symbolism
The thematic range of Art Brut CUBA is vast, but certain motifs recur across different generations of artists. Religious and spiritual iconography is ever-present, particularly in works influenced by Afro-Cuban religions. Figures of Orishas, Catholic saints, and hybrid deities emerge in paintings and sculptures, often rendered in vibrant, chaotic compositions that blend the sacred and the surreal.
Many artists obsessively revisit autobiographical imagery, filling their works with repetitive symbols, dreamlike sequences, and fragmented memories. In some cases, this manifests as intensely detailed drawings, where patterns and motifs multiply across the surface like visual incantations. Others create dense, layered paintings in which human figures and fantastical creatures seem trapped within their own inner worlds.
Art Brut CUBA is more than an exhibition; it is a testament to the persistence of creativity in the face of adversity. It bridges past and present, history and innovation, individual vision and collective experience. It challenges traditional hierarchies of artistic legitimacy, offering a space where art is valued not for its polish or its institutional recognition, but for its raw urgency, its necessity, and its ability to transform the discarded into the sacred.
For those who visit, this exhibition is an invitation to see art beyond the confines of museums and galleries, to witness how creativity thrives in the most unexpected places, and to understand that in Cuba, art is not a luxury, it is survival itself.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Collection de l'Art Brut
Date: 6.12.2024 – 27.4.2025
Curators: Sarah Lombardi
Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Collection de l'Art Brut
Collection de l'Art Brut
11 Avenue des Bergi猫res
CH-1004 - Lausanne
Phone: +41 21 315 25 70
Mail: art.brut@lausanne.ch