This exhibition explores how issues of Latin American and Latinx identity and place are manifest in the practices of artists working in Chicago and Havana at a moment of social change and strained political relations between the United States and Cuba.

Cross Currents is the result of an artist exchange organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art. Six Chicago-based artists visited Havana in spring 2017 and six Cuban artists visited Chicago in fall 2017 and summer 2018. The work on view reflects the artists’ experiences and observations as they interacted with each other, curators, cultural spaces, and neighborhoods during their trips. The project aims to open pathways of communication and understanding between the two cities and peer artists while also reflecting on their own artistic practices at this moment in time.

Installation view, Cross Currents at the Smart Museum of Art