MONROE — The artwork of collage painter Eduin Fraga will be on exhibit in the Monroe Arts Center’s Wellington Gallery from Nov. 19, 2021, through Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. Fraga was born in Havana, Cuba in 1974. He began painting over twenty years ago, blending newspaper collage and paint on canvas in order to capture dynamic fragments of society within the piece.
“Within my work, I strive continually to represent the complex and subtle realities of daily experience in Cuba and the U.S.,” he said. “My work focuses on everyday lives to excavate themes such as the Special Period in Cuba, workers’ struggles for economic survival, aging infrastructure and related challenges to transportation and sanitation, emigration, and familial separation or loss. I use collage mixed with oil, acrylic, charcoal and other media on canvas — a mixed media technique I call ‘collage painting’.”
Fraga formally studied painting and drawing at the Experimental Center of Visual Arts in Havana and graduated in 2012. He has been invited to present his work in galleries and universities within the US and in Cuba. Some of his works are part of the Northwestern Mutual Insurance’s Giving Gallery, a 2018 exhibit that focuses on philanthropic partnerships in Milwaukee. Fraga currently divides his time between Cuba and the United States.
Excited to share Eduin Fraga’s work with the local community is Brenda Bloom, MAC Gallery Director.
“Eduin Fraga’s thought provoking work represents the social realities of life in Cuba,” she said. “Each of the pieces utilizes collage mixed with oil, acrylic and charcoal. We are delighted to exhibit Eduin’s work and hope it will generate a wider understanding of social experiences.”
We invite you to learn and become immersed in Fraga’s social experience told through excerpts and images from various Cuban and American newspapers, reflecting “historical register of events and institutional processes that have shaped our societies and the people within them.”
This exhibit has been supported by MAC Corporate Underwriter Colony Brands, Inc. and Season Media Underwriter Big Radio, with additional support from Mike and Shelley Muranyi, Paul and Sue Barrett, NS Jan Johnson, David, and Janeen Babler, and Chuck and Chris Wellington.
