DATA OF INTEREST
GUEST:
SAMUEL RIERA
HOST:
TANIA BRUGUERA
Synopsis:
The work of Riera Studios in the development of so-called “peripheral” or outsider art and the promotion of Art Brut on the island are the topics explored in this conversation between Samuel Riera and Tania Bruguera.
Bio:
In 1993 Samuel Riera entered the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro to specialize in engraving. From 1998 to 2001 he studied Graphic Arts at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). He later worked as a professor of engraving at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro until March 2016.
In 2003 he created the project Galería Postal, and in 2005 he received a grant from the Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, dedicated to the study of lithography. In 2005, he won the Gran Premio de Gráfica sponsored by the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional and the Spanish Embassy in Cuba. In 2018 he was given a COUNCIL grant, an organization based in France, for the development of the project Arte al margen del Arte, which holds art workshops for individuals with psychological disorders. In 2019 he takes part in the international project Picturing Climate: Participatory Photography and Narrative Storytelling for Climate Change Education with the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK (AHRC). He has participated in over 100 collective expositions in Cuba and internationally. Today his work is displayed in the permanent collection of the first Cuban Art Museum in Vienna, Austria and in private collections in Spain, Denmark, the United States, Viena, Japan, Venezuela and Cuba.
He currently works with different mediums in his artistic discourse, among them graphic arts, paint, video art, film and installation.
He has given conferences on video art in Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico, participating in different international film festivals such as: the Primer Festival de Cine Alternativo in Mexico, the Festival de Jóvenes Realizadores, Cuba, and the Festival Internacional de Cine Pobre, Cuba.
The primary spaces that have exhibited his art include: Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Cuba. Casa de las Américas, Cuba. Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Cuba. Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Mérida, Mexico. Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, Costa Rica. Salón Internacional De París, Galería Nesle Espace, France. Gran Fundación León Jiménez, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Galería Espacio Aglutinador, Cuba. Museo de Arte de las Américas, Washington DC, United States. Galería Nacional de Honduras, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Taipei, Taiwan.
In 2012 he opened his workshop Riera Studio with the intention of creating an independent space for dialogue, diagnosis and cooperation rooted in the alternative discourse confronting Cuban Art today and supporting the development and presence of peripheral or outsider art, removed from the centrist discourses of art. In 2013 he created the project Art Brut Project Cuba, which he currently directs, with the intention of developing a program of actions in Cuba for the discovery, cataloging, diffusion and support of the work of Cuban creators of Art Brut.
