Cuban Artist Pavel Acosta to Visit UW April 9

Cuba-born, America-based artist Pavel Acosta will visit the University of Wyoming April 9-12. Several free public events will take place during the artist’s visit.

April’s “Lunchtime Conversations with Curators,” a gallery walk-through, will feature the exhibition “Pavel Acosta: Stolen from the Museum.” The event will take place Wednesday, April 10, from 12:10-12:50 p.m. at the UW Art Museum.

A panel discussion, in conjunction with the Shepard Symposium on Social Justice, will be Thursday, April 11, from 10:30-11:30 a.m. in the Wyoming Union Senate Chambers. “The Stolen Paintings: A Conversation on Ethics and Art in the Americas” will be a discussion about art and ethics, social geographies and political transitions, structured within the physical and metaphorical walls of the museum. The panel will feature Acosta, an internationally known artist; Yuneikys Villalonga, chief curator of the Coral Gables Museum; Nicole Crawford, chief curator of the UW Art Museum; and Nicholas Crane, an assistant professor of geography at UW.

The UW Art Museum will host an art-making workshop for ages 13 and older Thursday, April 11, from 6-8 p.m. Acosta will guide participants in making their own works of art or re-creating known masterpieces using construction-based materials such as drywall and dried acrylic paint. This workshop is meant to encourage maximum creativity out of limited resources. Participants can take home materials if they do not finish their creations. The workshop is limited to 20 participants and costs $10 per person. To register, go to https://tinyurl.com/acosta-wkshp.

“Pavel Acosta: Stolen from the Museum” presents artwork by Acosta. He uses uncommon resources --primarily paint chips collected from flaking old walls like those found in the country of his youth -- as collage material to create stunning reproductions of other artworks. These works include “Peregrine Falcons” by John James Audubon and “Coquelicots (Poppies)” by Claude Monet. Although nearly monochromatic white on brown-papered Sheetrock, Acosta’s renditions capture the mastery of those previous works, while also displaying his own technical sophistication.

“The UW Art Museum is honored to work with an artist of Acosta’s caliber and reputation,” Crawford says. “We are very excited to announce that he has created a special piece that has never been exhibited before for this exhibition in Wyoming.”

The exhibition will be on view through Aug. 10.

For more information about the UW Art Museum, call (307) 766-6622, visit the website at www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum, or follow the museum on Facebook and Instagram.

Through its “Museum as Classroom” approach, the UW Art Museum places art at the center of learning for all ages. Located in the Centennial Complex at 2111 E. Willett Drive in Laramie, the museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday hours are extended to 7 p.m. Admission is free.