Forbidden Fruit: The Art of Cuban Sexuality

Exhibition: Forbidden Fruit: The Art of Cuban Sexuality
Curated by: Antonio Permuy, joined by assistant curator Karina Sirven
Location: WEAM, 1205 Washington Avenue, Miami, FL
Dates: December 2, 2024 – July 2025

WEAM is proud to present the museum’s first-ever exhibition of Cuban art, a notable and historic exhibition, as it is the largest known exhibition dedicated to Cuban erotic art ever held, on-or-off the island. It spans more than 50 artists and over 100 works across painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography from the last 90 years. The featured works span from the legendary Cuban “Vanguardia” (Vanguard) generation, who are credited with creating modern Cuban art, up to contemporary artists, to bridge as well as contrast contemporary works with the works of previous decades, stretching back to the early 1930s. Forbidden Fruit is noted for its ambitious scale and taboo-breaking, genre-bending approach to curation. The fullest range of sexuality is showcased, from the subtle, lyrical, abstract, and symbolic to the palpable and explicit. Sexuality is explored through various themes, including spirituality, mythology, and nature, to the surprisingly dark landscapes of the psychological.

Forbidden Fruit is the last exhibition to feature the active involvement of two pioneering longtime leaders of the Miami art community, Baruj Salinas and Margarita Cano, who both passed away in 2024. Additionally, the exhibition features works by established and emerging Cuban artists of the 20th and 21st centuries based in Greater Miami, Tampa Bay, New York, Boston, Chicago, Europe, and on the island, capturing the growth, evolution, and synthesis of Cuban art with American art, African art, European art, and Asian art. Even with this astonishing breadth, curator Antonio Permuy explains, “The exhibition does not attempt to aim for completeness within the vastness of Cuban art, but rather prioritizes impact through unique selection of works and exhibiting arrangements.” Many of the works by the more well-known artists were purposefully curated to show rarely-seen aspects of these familiar artists, therefore contributing to the public and historical depth of their legacies and respective bodies of work.

Notable featured artists include vintage works by renowned pioneering “Vangaurdia” (Vanguard) artist Carlos Enriquez, Amelia Pelaez, the only woman who was part of the same pioneering “Vangaurdia” (Vanguard) movement, as well as established figures such as Víctor Manuel, Wifredo Lam, Mario Carreño, and René Portocarrero.

Get tickets here!