El Pasado Mio/ My Own Past

This landmark exhibition celebrates the work of forty-three Afro-Cuban artists who were active between the 1820s and the present. While several of those featured have achieved global fame, many have yet to receive the attention they deserve, prominent among them a group of eleven female artists whose works will be displayed together for the first time. The contributions of these and other creatives represented in the show cannot be reduced to a singular “black” style, theme, approach, or technique. The exhibition offers the opportunity to understand these artists and their work by critically engaging with the historical, political, and socio-economic contexts in which they were created. Largely inspired by A Mão Afro-Brasileira—the legendary exhibition curated by Afro-Brazilian artist and curator Emanoel Araújo in 1988—this show explores Cuba and its complexities through the lives, experiences, and production of featured Afro-Cuban artists.

El Pasado Mío/My Own Past was originally presented in 2022 at The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at Harvard University, where it was curated by Alejandro de la Fuente in collaboration with other prominent scholars. The Lowe’s iteration of this show has been modified by Dr. de la Fuente to include critical works of art from local Miami collections.

This exhibition was made possible by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council; the Miami-Dade Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the Lowe Advisory Council; the City of Coral Gables; Beaux-Arts Miami; and Lowe members. It was sponsored in part by the State of Florida through the Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts.