Ricardo Brey
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Biography
Ricardo Brey (b.1955) was born in Havana, Cuba and has lived and worked in Ghent, Belgium since1990. From the late 1970s onward, Brey’s practice, which spans drawing, sculpture, and installation, has focused on his research into the origins of humanity and humankind’s place in the world.
A child during the Cuban Revolution, Brey was educated at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas San Alejandro (1970–1974) and the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana (1974–1978), at the time the best art school in Cuba. After graduating, he joined a dynamic artistic scene in Havana that included Cuban and international artists who were committed to advancing artistic practice in Cuba. Brey worked briefly as an illustrator and graphic designer before exhibiting in the landmark 1981 group show Volumen I at the Centro de Arte Internacional in Havana.
Volumen I brought Brey widespread critical attention and ultimately provided him with the opportunity to travel and exhibit internationally. As the 1980s progressed, he continued to refine his interest in history and myth. Mining both the legacies of colonialism in Latin America and Afro-Cuban traditions, Brey produced a rich body of work that ranged from faux historical documents drafted by explorers and naturalists to Santería-influenced sculptures and installations. In 1992, at the invitation of the Belgian curator Jan Hoet, he participated in Documenta IX—the first Cuban artist to do so. Brey’s installation for Documenta consisted of a series of objects, including old Venetian blinds, mattresses, panes of glass, and an electric fan, and represented a new stage in his artistic development. Moving away from the handmade Afro-Cuban objects that typified his late 1980s work, Brey began to create his own hybrid transcultural myths through the juxtaposition of disparate readymades.
During the 1990s, Ricardo Brey continued to refine this approach to sculpture and installation, harnessing the associative potential of objects to suggest a narrative. For example, Brey used tires to construct installations that serve as meditations on transience and exile—the tires’ forms referencing the tire rafts built by Cuban refugees to cross the Florida Strait. Since 2000, Brey has experimented with vitrine installations, producing works like Universe (2002–2006), consisting of 1,004 drawings illustrating an “entire” universe—including every bird, fish, insect, and plant—its supplement Annex (2003–2016), and the ongoing series Every life is a fire, intricate boxes that unfold to reveal books, drawings, sculptures, and performative proposals. These recent works, like Brey’s earlier fantastical historical documents, reveal the artist’s decades-long inquiry into how humans understand and categorize reality and themselves. As Brey states, “What fascinates me is the origin of the human race, our culture and our society. It is from the relationship between different life forms and between the communities of earlier and today that we can deduce the state of the present world. We can learn from our evolutionary past and thus consider our current condition critically. From a global approach man can emphasize the underlying connection between everything around us.”
Brey’s work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including Gap in the Clouds, MuseumHof van Busleyden, Mechelen, Belgium (2022); Adrift, Gerhard-Marcks-Haus, Bremen, Germany and Museum De Domijnen, Sittard, the Netherlands (2019); Fuel to the Fire, Museum van HedendaagseKunst Antwerpen (M HKA), Antwerp, Belgium (2015); BREY, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de LaHabana, Cuba (2014); Universe, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Ghent, Belgium (2006–2007); Ricardo Brey, Hanging around, GEM, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hague, the Netherlands (2004); Sources, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Crestet, France (2000); Kunstverein Salzburg,Austria (1997); Galleria Civica, Palazzina dei Giardini, Comune di Modena, Italy (1996); Vereniging voorhet Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent, Belgium (1993); and El Origin de las Especies, MuseoNacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, Cuba (1981). He has also participated in many group shows,including Juan Francisco Elso: Por América, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY (2022); traveled to Phoenix Art Museum, AZ and Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, FL (both 2023); 56th Venice Biennale, All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor (2015); Artesur, Collective Fictions, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2013); Trattenendosi at the 48th Venice Biennale, Italy (1999);Universalis at the23rd São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (1996); Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany (1992); and Volumen I, CentroInternacional de Arte de La Habana, Cuba (1981). He is the recipient of many awards and grants,including the Prize for Visual Arts from the Flemish Ministry of Culture (1998) and a GuggenheimFellowship for Sculpture and Installation (1997). Brey’s work is featured in global public and privatecollections, including theBouwfonds Art Collection, The Hague, the Netherlands; Centre Pompidou,Paris, France;Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba;CERA Art Collection,Leuven, Belgium; Collection of Pieter and Marieke Sanders, Haarlem, the Netherlands; Collection de laProvince de Hainaut, Belgium; de la Cruz Collection, Miami, FL; Fonds national d’art contemporain(FNAC), France; Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, Miami, FL; Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany; Louis-Dreyfus FamilyCollection, Mount Kisco, NY;Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, Havana,Cuba; Museum de Domijnen, Sittard, the Netherlands; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen(M HKA), Belgium; Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, FL; Province ofEast Flanders Monuments and Cultural Heritage, Belgium; Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Luanda,Angola; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Ghent, Belgium;Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum,Aachen, Germany; Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, and others.
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Exhibitions
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Ricardo Brey
Every Life is a Fire 4 Nov 2022 - 21 Jan 2023 GermantownAlexander Gray Associates, Germantown presents Ricardo Brey: Every Life is a Fire. The artist’s first exhibition at the Gallery’s Hudson Valley location, this focused presentation highlights three works from the...Read more -
"A sheet of paper casts a shadow."
16 Sep - 30 Oct 2022 GermantownAlexander Gray Associates, Germantown presents 'A sheet of paper casts a shadow.” This group exhibition features a selection of works on paper by six Gallery artists, Ricardo Brey, Luis Camnitzer,...Read more -
Ricardo Brey
Blue Shore 4 Nov - 18 Dec 2021 New YorkAlexander Gray Associates presents Blue Shore, the Gallery’s second one-person exhibition of work by Ricardo Brey (b.1955, Cuba). Since the late 1970s, Brey’s practice has examined the origins and nature...Read more -
South South
26 Feb - 11 Apr 2021 GermantownAlexander Gray Associates, Germantown presents South South, an exhibition that examines poetics of space and orientation in works by five Gallery artists: Ricardo Brey, Luis Camnitzer, Melvin Edwards, Regina Silveira,...Read more -
Ricardo Brey
Chinese Purple 5 Oct - 17 Nov 2019 GermantownAlder & Co., 222 Main Street, Germantown NY 12526 Hours: Friday – Sunday 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM Inviting performative engagement by unclasping the four walls of the box and...Read more -
Ricardo Brey
Doble Existencia / Double Existence 28 Feb - 6 Apr 2019 New YorkAlexander Gray Associates presented its first exhibition of work by Ricardo Brey (b. 1955), Doble Existencia / Double Existence. Born in Havana, Cuba, Brey has lived and worked in Ghent,...Read more
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Public Collections
Bouwfonds Art Collection, The Hague, the Netherlands
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba
Collection de la Province de Hainaut, Belgium
Conscience Building, Ministry of the Flemish Community, Brussels, Belgium
Fonds national d’art contemporain (FNAC), France
Lenbachhaus Museum, Munich, Germany
Mondrian Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, Havana, Cuba
Museum de Domijnen, Sittard, the Netherlands
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA), Antwerp, Belgium
Nova Southern University (NSU) Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, FL
Province of East Flanders Monuments and Cultural Heritage, Belgium
Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Luanda, Angola
Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Ghent, Belgium
Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen, Germany
Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands -
News / Events
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Ricardo Brey
Motel Corona Resilience Acquisitions by the Flemish Community at the SMAK - Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art May 27, 2023Ricardo Brey is included in the group exhibition, Motel Corona Resilience Acquisitions by the Flemish Community at the SMAK - Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium.
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Ricardo Brey
Juan Francisco Elso: Por América at the Phoenix Art Museum May 6, 2023Ricardo Brey, Luis Camnitzer, Melvin Edwards, and Lorraine O’Grady are included in the group exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América organized by El Museo de Barrio and curated by Olga Viso travels to the Phoenix Art Museum.
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Ricardo Brey
Keteleer Gallery March 3, 2023Ricardo Brey is included in the duo exhibition Common Ground with Lois Weinberger at Keteleer Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium.
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Juan Francisco Elso: Por América
El Museo del Barrio October 27, 2022Ricardo Brey, Luis Camnitzer, Melvin Edwards, and Lorraine O’Grady included in the group exhibition Juan Francisco Elso: Por América curated by Olga Viso at El Museo del Barrio, New York.
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Ricardo Brey
Museum Hof van Busleyden and De Garage May 20, 2022Ricardo Brey's one-person exhibition Gap in the Clouds at the Museum Hof van Busleyden and De Garage in Mechelen, Belgium.
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Ricardo Brey
ANOTHER SPACE March 9, 2022Ricardo Brey included in the group exhibition Elsewhere(s): Other worlds, other times, other territories at ANOTHER SPACE, New York.
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Ricardo Brey
Musée d'Art Contemporain de Bordeaux December 15, 2020Ricardo Brey included in the group exhibition Le Tour du Jour en Quatre-Vingts Mondes (Around the Day in Eighty Worlds) at Contemporary Art Museum of Bordeaux, France.
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Articles / Reviews