HRF supports El Sexto's first US exhibit

HRF supports El Sexto's first US exhibit
[10-02-2016 22:44:35]
Human Rights Foundation

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK (February 10, 2015) — Human
Rights Foundation (HRF) is delighted to announce Danilo "El Sexto"
Maldonado Machado's first art show in the United States. El Sexto, a
Cuban graffiti artist and activist, will showcase his work in an
exhibition entitled "PORK," which will take place at Market Gallery in
South Beach, Miami, from February 26 to March 16.
El Sexto was arrested on December 25, 2014 while on his way to present
his performance art piece "Rebelión en la Granja" — the Spanish title of
George Orwell's classic "Animal Farm" — which included two pigs
decorated with the names Fidel and Raúl. The graffiti artist was accused
of criminal defamation for "insulting" the leaders of the Cuban
Revolution and sent to prison, where he remained incarcerated without
trial until his release in October 2015. Last May, while still in
prison, El Sexto was awarded the Václav Havel International Prize for
Creative Dissent for his bravery and ingenuity in peacefully advocating
for individual rights in Cuba.

The exhibition will open with a multi-sensory event including a
performance art piece, a secret 1960s film, live music, and El Sexto's
first comprehensive display of paintings, drawings, and prints.

From the event's organizers at Pollock Fine Art and Market Gallery:

"Since 2008, Danilo Maldonado Machado has not only brought his unique
form of graffiti across the streets, alleys, and decaying buildings of
Havana, but has managed to produce an amazing body of paintings under
increasingly intolerable conditions. Painter, graffiti artist,
performance artist, master draftsman, dissident, pacifist, political
philosopher, and social media phenomenon: El Sexto is also a hero. He
reconciles his life and his art, both showman and shaman. Above all El
Sexto's essential medium is freedom and the world is his studio - even
prison.

...

His very name, El Sexto (The Sixth in Spanish) is a direct reference to
the Cuban Five who were elevated to national heroes by Castro's
propaganda machine in 2014 (once released from a US prison on charges of
spying). As his story spread, the consensus spread along with it: there
was no crime committed and the punishment was 'ludicrous.'

During the private viewing of PORK, El Sexto promises a special
performance that furthers the radical proposition raised in Cuba. The
event is sure to raise new questions; with bigger American pigs he will
realize his long-delayed plan. Along with a series of high-energy
paintings and detailed drawings from 2013-2016, PORK is a testament to
his remarkable journey and transformation."

Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization
that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed
societies. We believe that all human beings are entitled to freedom of
self-determination, freedom from tyranny, the rights to speak freely, to
associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their
countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal
treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to
participate in the governments of their countries; HRF's ideals likewise
find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right
to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and
coercion in matters of conscience. HRF does not support nor condone
violence. HRF's International Council includes human rights advocates
George Ayittey, Vladimir Bukovsky, Palden Gyatso, Garry Kasparov,
Mutabar Tadjibaeva, Ramón J. Velásquez, Elie Wiesel, and Harry Wu.

Contact: Noemi Gonzalo-Bilbao, (212) 246-8486, noemi@hrf.org

Source: HRF supports El Sexto's first US exhibit - Misceláneas de Cuba -
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