Fredric Snitzer Gallery is pleased to present Lázaro Saavedra’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, Early Works, 1980s. Lázaro Saavedra's early collaged paper works produced in 1985-6 are significant pieces that reflect his early experimentation with artistic forms and concepts. During this period, Saavedra, like many Cuban artists of his generation, was exploring new ways of expression in response to the socio-political climate of Cuba in the 1980s.
These early collages demonstrate Saavedra's interest in combining different visual elements to create dynamic compositions that convey layered meanings. He often incorporated found materials such as newspapers, magazines, and advertisements into his collages, using them to comment on contemporary Cuban society and its relationship with global culture.
In these works, Saavedra employed techniques of juxtaposition and fragmentation to disrupt conventional narratives and challenge viewers' perceptions. By combining disparate images and texts, he created visually arresting compositions that encouraged viewers to question the underlying messages embedded within media and advertising.
Saavedra's early collaged paper works laid the foundation for his later artistic practice, which continued to explore themes of identity, politics, and cultural exchange through a variety of mediums. These early pieces demonstrate his keen eye for visual storytelling and his ability to engage with complex ideas through the language of collage. They also showcase his commitment to pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and challenging the status quo within Cuban art.
Saavedra states,
“There was a time, in the early and mid-80s, where I became obsessed with the “occult.” I was interested in materializing "that" essence that being invisible, I perceived as fundamental in the manifest interactions during the communication process between human beings or with myself. I then created a code that visualized these non-visible aspects of communication: thought-waves, points-looks, arrows-words. Thus, for instance, in each composition the arrows-words could resignify to refer to speech, dialogue, monologue, treacherous flattery, puffery, verbal stoning, etc. In this series, the interactions between different types of surfaces (paper, cardboard) or between the language of painting and drawing, are proposed to be “expressive means” of emotional states (which is inserted in an expressionist tradition). In the second case, it is also a way of approaching and proposing a personal solution to the historical dichotomy between two rival assumptions: the pictorial and the linear, the latter in its apparent double manifestation either as a drawing or as a text. Also, the title, always included within the work, was acting as a decoding key and complicit element of the iconic-verbal language in the midst of a time where the most conservative tendencies still defended the alleged iconic purity of a work avoiding taking into account that, at some point, the piece would be accompanied by a hidden title on the back of the canvas or cardboard, in the exhibit label or curatorial text in the gallery. Those were years when I had made several encounters with a ghost from the 18th century. I assumed the man as an ally, especially his series of "Los Caprichos" (The Caprices). This was for me (among many other things) a source of study of iconic-verbal expression.
In the Cuban context, the teaching process is also mediated by verbal and non-verbal communication. The lack and control of information forces the student to search for “the hidden”, the elided. In elementary and middle level art schools we had grown up and “coexisted” with the historical avant-garde of the 20th century as the aesthetic paradigm. During the 80s, the flow of information in Cuba increased, Postmodernism made its entrance together with Neo-expressionism, Trans-avant-garde, Kitsch, Bad painting, Graffiti, the “High and Low”, etc. Where were the “Post”, the “Neo”, the “trans” in all this? Six of one, half dozens of others? These were some of the many questions of that time that each person attempted to answer in some way with their work.”
Lázaro Saavedra (b. 1964 in Havana, Cuba) is a contemporary Cuban artist known for his multidisciplinary approach encompassing painting, installation, video, performance, and conceptual art. Saavedra graduated from the Superior Institute of Art in Havana in 1988, the year of his first solo exhibition Pintar lo que pienso, pensar lo que pinto (Painting what I Think, Thinking what I Paint), at Habana Gallery. He was a member of the Grupo Puré in the 1980s, whose projects incorporated vernacular roots blended with social connotations. He has taught at the Superior Institute of Art since 1991, and founded the collective Enema with a group of his students. An ongoing work of his is Galería I-MEIL, an electronic art activism project. Saavedra has gained international recognition for his thought-provoking and often satirical artworks that engage with themes such as politics, identity, and the complexities of contemporary Cuban society.
Saavedra emerged as part of the generation of artists who came of age during the 1980s, a period marked by economic hardship and political tension in Cuba. This context profoundly influenced his artistic practice, leading him to develop a critical perspective on his country's social and political realities.
His works often incorporate found objects, text, and everyday materials, creating layered and complex pieces that invite viewers to question established norms and ideologies. Saavedra is known for using humor and irony to address serious topics, offering a nuanced exploration of the human condition within the Cuban context. Throughout his career, Saavedra has remained deeply engaged with the cultural and political dynamics of Cuba, using his art as a platform to explore and critique the complexities of life on the island.
Some of his solo exhibitions include A Retrospective Look (with Rubén Torres Llorca), which won the award for Best Curated Show of the Year in Cuba in 1989; El desafío de mi arte (The Challenge of My Art) in Havana in 1991; Historia para historiadores (History for Historians) in Cienfuegos in 1995; Levántate, Chago; no jodas, Lázaro (Get Up, Chago; Stop Screwing Around, Lázaro) at Espacio Aglutinador, Havana, 1996; Body, Soul and Thought at Gallerie S, Aachen, Germany, in 1996; Mental Massage, at the Rice University Media Center in Houston, Texas, in 1997; and Mi dossier, el descaro y la representación (My Dossier, The Cheek and Representation), at the Center for the Development of Visual Arts in Havana in 1998. In 2002, the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana organized the exhibition El único animal que ríe (The Only Animal that Laughs), a compendium of his productive career.
Saavedra's work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions, including La tradición del humor (The Humor Tradition) at the 3rd Havana Biennial in 1989; Cuba OK at Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1990; and Trabajando pa’l ingle (Workin' for the Englishman) at the Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom in 1999.
His works are part of several public and private collections: AGO in Ontario, Canada, CIFO Art Foundation in the USA, Daros-Latinamerica in Switzerland, the Ludwig Foundation in Germany, the Farber Foundation in the USA, the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, Canada, the Museum les Abattoirs - Frac Occitanie in France, the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba, the PAMM in Florida USA, and others. In recognition of his outstanding educational activity, the Higher Institute of Art granted him the Diploma of Pedagogic Merit in 2000 and the Diploma of Honor in 2007. He was awarded the Distinction For National Culture in 1999 and the National Prize in Visual Arts in 2014.
