Lamparilla

"Lamparilla" is the name of a famous street in Old Havana, and it also references the small oil lamps people rely on during the frequent apagones or blackouts. Symbolically, it carries the idea that every Cuban holds their own inner light—sometimes literal, sometimes internal—despite darkness, scarcity, and repression. In Lamparilla, Gabriel Sanchez draws inspiration from friends, family members, and journalistic and documentary sources to examine the impacts of suppression, longing, separation, exile, and diaspora. Through intimate portraits, documentary street scenes, and a sculptural installation, Sanchez foregrounds humanity, vulnerability, and the quiet resilience embedded in daily experience. The exhibition speaks to the physical and psychological struggles that impact contemporary life in Cuba and pays tribute to the brave acts of survival against the weight of repression, scarcity, censorship, and fear under an oppressive state. The exhibition juxtaposes refined figurative oil paintings of friends and family in moments of vulnerability, contemplation, and forward-looking reflection with "sketch" paintings memorializing the July 11, 2021, protests, also known as "11J." Painted in rapidly executed burnt umber oil washes on unstretched canvas, the paintings recall the immediacy of documentary footage. An immersive installation of five standing lamps made from welded chain and arranged on wooden pallets evokes both raft and island.