Another Cuba Meridian Displays Unique Oriente Style From Eastern Area by Carolyn Chapman Clyde Hensley has had a lifelong interest in the arts. When he was younger, he tried creating his own art but decided he would be better off supporting the arts instead, so he joined the Chrysler Museum of Art in Virginia when he was 20 years old. After many years of being an art collector, he discovered his passion: art from the eastern region of Cuba, known as Cuba Oriente. Hensley is the founder of the Eastern Cuba Cultural Exchange Association, which supports Cuban artists by supplying them with materials, selling their paintings, arranging exhibitions of their work, and offering an artist-exchange program between American artists and their Eastern Cuban counterparts. Hensleyís collection totals more than 300 paintings, 63 of which are now on display at the Meridian International Center in ìCuba Oriente: Contemporary Painting From Eastern Cuba.î ìEastern Cuba is pretty much the cradle of the arts in Cuba,î said Hensley, who explained that these artists have a style that is unique from the rest of Cuba because they are more isolated. In fact, although Cuba is just 92 miles from U.S. sho res, Cuba Oriente is more than 650 miles from Havana. ìThey donít have access to Havana where the art is more avant-garde,î Hensley said. ìEastern artists paint more of day-to-day life.î Stylistically, each of the 10 artists featured in the Meridian exhibition are quite different, and after looking at just a few of the paintings, it is easy to tell whose style is whose. In subject matter, the artists also differ substantially: Some specialize in landscapes, others in profiles, abstract themes or surrealistic images. Joherms Quiala Brooks, from Guantanamo, Cuba, is a surrealist whose admiration for Salvador DalÌ is clear. Quiala uses vivid, brilliant colors that, like many of the other works in the exhibit, portray Cuba in a non-idealized, realistic way. The U.S. dollar is featured in many of Quialaís paintings, which Hensley noted were created as part of a series done eight years ago when the dollar was illegal in Cuba. In ìExodus,î for example, a house that looks more like a shack has a $1 bill plastered to it, while clouds in the background morph into a wave of trees rising to the top of the canvas. Interest with the United States is also evident in Quialaís ìMy Uncle Who Arrived From the North,î which features a man wearing an American-style baseball cap and a thick gold watch leaning against a tree with a $1 bill wrapped around it. In ìThe Postcard That Is Never Sold,î Quiala emphasizes the contrast between the Cuba known by Cubans and the Cuba that tourists experience. In one corner, there is a postcard of a serene tropical landscape, while the rest of the canvas portrays small houses in shambles, laundry fluttering in the wind, dirt roads and a large piece of broken glass. Alfredo Cecilio RodrÌguez CedeÒo of Bayamo, Cuba, is another artist with a very distinguishable style. The self-taught artist primarily paints rural landscapes portraying the lifestyle of Cuban campesinos, or farmers. His paintings show green farms often in disarray, with trash strewn along the grass, stagnant puddles, trees tumbling down, scattered empty cans and falling rain. Though gloomy, RodrÌguezís stark sense of realism is refreshing. RodrÌguez himself grew up on a farm and counts as his greatest influences the 18th-century Dutch landscape painters. The exhibition also features the works of eight other Eastern Cuban artists whom Hensley chose to represent because they ìare the most genuine and prolificî in Cuba Oriente, he said. But Hensley does more than just act as a liaison between these artists and the American clients to which he hopes to sell their work. He travels to the region frequently, bringing with him badly needed art supplies and materials that can often be a struggle to find in the region. In addition, Hensley has taken a personal interest in each of the artistsí lives, even recently providing one artistís girlfriend with prenatal vitamins upon learning that she was pregnant. ìWe really feel strongly about this art and we want to share it,î said Hensley of his organization. ìThese artists have entrusted us with helping their careers.î Although the art of Eastern Cuba is not as well known as that of Havana, the word is slowly getting out. ìPeople are beginning to find out about it now,î Hensley said. ìThese artists are starting to get knocks on their doors.î ìCuba Oriente: Contemporary Painting From Eastern Cubaî runs through Jan. 15 at the Meridian International Center, 1630 Crescent Place, NW. For more information, please call (202) 667-6800 or visit www.meridian.org. For more information on the Eastern Cuba Cultural Exchange Association, please visit www.cubanart.org. Carolyn Chapman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.