Entertainment News & Views

September 25, 1997

Artist Xavier Cortada will be on display at the Area Stage Theater on South Beach from Sept 20 through the end of October. The exhibit, titled simply “Works on Display,” opens on Saturday, Sept 20, with a wine and cheese reception at 10 p.m., immediately following the evening’s theatrical performance. The Area Stage is located at 645 Lincoln Road on Miami Beach.

The show consists of a selection of Cortada’s most recent work. It includes pieces from the Torso series, from a mixed media series that incorporates “found” photographs and portraits, and a homage to Francis Bacon.

“As a lifelong Miamian, I’m happy to exhibit here at home,” says Cortada, “especially in a venue like the Area Stage Theater which has done so much to support the arts locally.” The artist recently returned from Peru, where he had a one-man show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cuzco. Cortada will be going to Bolivia in October where he has two solo museum shows, one in the capital La Paz, and another in Santa Cruz.

Cortada is a Cuban-American artist who combines talent with concern for social and political issues such as racism, human rights, sexuality, AIDS, and Cuba. Cortada’s paintings have been seen on four continents, with exhibits in museums and galleries in Washington, D.C., New York (SoHo), San Antonio, Berkeley, Madrid, Johannesburg, Mauritius, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Peru, and other places. He was the first foreign artist to exhibit in Soweto after the end of Apartheid. Cortada has also created a series of participant-driven murals commissioned by groups such as HBO, the Indiana Governor’s Office, MADD, and the Metro-Dade Cultural Affairs Council.