This document summarizes an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Cuban artist Danilo Maldonado Machado (known as El Sexto) that will be held from February 25th, 2016 in Miami Beach. El Sexto is a graffiti artist, painter, and dissident from Cuba who was imprisoned for 10 months without charge for his political artwork. The exhibition will feature his artistic work produced under conditions of increasing persecution in Cuba. It highlights his journey from graffiti artist to renowned dissident artist whose story has inspired human rights campaigns around the world.
2. Market Gallery in association
with Pollock Fine Art
is proud to present an
exhibition of paintings and works on paper by El Sexto
to be held at Miami Beach on February, 25th 2016.
This exhibition is produced with special thanks to
The Human Rights Foundation,
who awarded the artist the Václav Havel Prize for Creative
Dissent.
3. “ The day I first grabbed a can of
spray paint in my hand was the day
I decided what to do with my life. ”
“ And with faith and conviction:
Freedom or death.
To die for art is to live. ”
4. Since 2008 Danilo Maldonado (aka El Sexto or the Sixth)
has not only brought his unique form of graffiti across
the streets, alleys and decaying buildings of Havana, but
has managed to produce a serious body of work under
increasingly intolerable conditions, persecution,
intimidation, attempted censure and ten months of
imprisonment without charge. Painter, graffiti artist,
performance artist, master draftsman, dissident,
pacifist, political philosopher, writer/blogger/social media
phenomenon: El Sexto is also a hero. He reconciles his
life and his art, both showman and shaman: El Sexto’s
essential medium is freedom and the world is his
studio-even when it was a prison.
5. On a hazy hot Christmas morning in 2014, a small crowd
had gathered around a shirtless bearded man who’s
thin tattooed* back lay hunched over two small pigs.
The hissing of the aerosol cans were a familiar
soundtrack, to a risky artistic practice. Preparing for a
performance that crossed George Orwell’s Animal Farm
with the Cuban Christmas tradition of letting pigs loose
into a crowd, Danilo Maldonado writes the letter F in red.
The artist’s deft hand spelled out the rest of the letters:
F I D E L , and on the second pig, R A U L. That small act,
triggered an irreversible set of events that would include
arrest, imprisonment that incited a worldwide outcry for
hisrelease.Paintedpigsinhand,ElSexto’staxididnotgetfar,
as it was intercepted by Security Forces and he was thrown
iin jail. For the next ten months, living under the harshest
of conditions El Sexto eventually began a hunger strike.
6. On that Christmas, the Cuban authorities became
unwitting participants in the ultimate Situationist
performance. By detaining the artist, the arrest became a
twisted form of audience participation, a stark example of
the constant irony and satire accompanying Maldonado’s
allegories. His very name, El Sexto which means The Sixth,
is a direct reference to the Cuban Five; who were
transformed to national heroes by Castro in 2014
(once released from a US prison on charges of spying).
As El Sexto’s story spread, the consensus spread
along with it: there was no crime committed and the
punishment was ‘ludicrous’ : Support, both in Cuba and
internationally grew from the streets of Havana and
spread by social media, in turn kicking-off
Human Rights campaigns . This time journalists couldn’t
accept the usual agnotology!
In October of 2015, after tremendous international
pressure, the regime was shamed into releasing him.
Free and working in Miami : if El Sexto jumps in a taxi he
is recognized by the driver, people smile and wave and he
is greeted wherever he goes, signing t-shirts and taking
pictures with fans.
7. That is if he is not in NY meeting with Gary Kasperov and
while painting a picture in the streets of Times Square,
or meeting Usher in New Orleans or presenting prison
drawings to supporting members of the House Represen-
tatives.
The story of El Sexto has just begun. Like the effect
from the ubiquitous Bowie Heroes anthem, El Sexto’s art
breaks down walls with it’s humane expressiveness and
universal appeal. Without compromising his Cuban iden-
tity, his practice goes beyond the dichotomy of politi-
cal systems, and prompts the public to share his stellar
journey and triumphant freedom. His work literally falls
“ in the gap between life an art “. ( described by the late
Robert Rauschenberg ).
