Rafael Zara, “Manolete” – woodcut. Part of the Connections/Conexiones exhibition at Brickbottom Gallery, March 10 – April 9.

The Brickbottom Gallery will be showing original prints by contemporary Cuban artists, most of whom are living on the island. This is the first half of an international print exchange.

In 2019, Janette Brossard Duharte, president of the Printmaking section of the Visual Artist Association of Cuba, approached The Boston Printmakers with an idea for an international print exchange. She invited members of The Boston Printmakers to exhibit in Havana and asked the organization to sponsor an exhibit of Cuban artists in the Boston area.

The Boston Printmakers happily accepted, and the Brickbottom Gallery agreed to exhibit the original prints, never shown here before.

Brossard brought the work of 37 artists to the gallery from Havana in 2019. The subjects of the prints explore themes ranging from politics to religion to eroticism. The graphic styles run the gamut from realism to colorful abstraction to the printed book.

The history of Cuban printmaking began with the necessity to promote Cuban cigars and developed after the Revolution with the production of strong silkscreen prints to advertise films and to make political statements.

Contemporary printmakers have expanded their output to include lithography, collagraphy, etching, woodcuts as well as silkscreen.

All of these mediums are present in the Connections/Conexiones exhibition, March 10 – April 9 at Brickbottom Gallery, 1 Fitchburg Street, Somerville. https://brickbottom.org.