"100% HAND MADE" by ALEJANDRO LÓPEZ

17 Frost Art Space presents: “100% Hand Made”
An exhibition by Cuban artist Alejandro Lopez.
Opening Reception Saturday October 3rd, from 6-10PM
17 Frost Street, between Lorimer St. and Union Ave in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 5 blocks from the Metropolitan-Lorimer subway station on the L and G line.

Featuring live music by jazz band Afromantra and Sineparade plus stage performance “Bacalao sin pan” by Alejandro Lopez with drummer Alex Garcia and Javier Hdez-Miyares on guitar.
Closing Reception Saturday October 24th, 6-9PM
Artist talks about his work (audio/visual presentation) and more (TBA).
October 3rd through November 1st 2009.
Note: after the opening reception the gallery will be accessible by appointment only. Please call (212) 568 7025 or e-mail info@alejlopez.com

The pieces that will be shown are part of a series entitled “Cuban Cigar Rings”. But this title, as well as the first visual impression, is deceiving. The work is a critical approach to the Cuban reality, particularly focused on the physical destruction of the urban environment. The images created for this series present a contrasting picture. Externally, it is an elegant and bucolic one. Cuba is associated to a great extent with this romanticized image, iconically represented by the glamorous Cuban cigar. Internally, a different reality is breaching: that of the physical destruction of a city (Havana) and by extension, the disruption of the family, the moral values... The decaying of a Nation. Interesting as it is indeed, this physical destruction is also what attracts so many tourists, who find in it a great deal of aesthetical pleasure mixed in with naive sensibilities about grown up revolutionary romanticism.

The Cuban Cigar Series is part of a larger project entitled “Havana in Hi & Low FIDELity”. For more information visit the artist website http://www.alejlopezcom.