Artist honors Cuba’s Ladies in White

To an arts district that finds more inspiration in New York than Havana comes the whimsical work of master puppeteer Pablo Cano: drawings framed by scalloped-edged cake boxes and brushed on plastic Clorox bottles — a tribute to the Ladies in White, the gladioli-carrying Damas de Blanco who peacefully march in Cuba in a silent quest for human rights.

Cano’s drawings, on exhibit at the Kelley Roy Gallery in Wynwood, depict the damas, often the target of pro-government mobs, as pious Byzantine figures who wear crowns and long flowing gowns.

One holds a scroll that reads “Liberty.” Another stands atop an upside down globe. A lone one drifts on a raft in the middle of the sea surrounded by sharks, a commanding galleon towering over her.

“Gothic Madonnas,” the artist calls his ladies.

The 50 ink drawings were made on telephone directory pages from Havana and Miami-Dade, white-washed by the artist with a light coat of primer. Some of the drawings were inked on pages from a 1958 Havana telephone directory where Cano found his family and friends listed. He bought the directory at a Little Havana souvenir shop. The drawings on Miami-Dade’s white pages reference the exile community; those that combine Havana and Miami directories symbolize solidarity across the Florida Straits with the Ladies in White.

More details on the exhibit can be found at the Miami Herald.