José Picayo - Cuba - 1997

The Robin Rice Gallery announces a solo exhibition of photographs by Jose Picayo. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, May 8, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The show runs through June 29, 1997.

After 28 years of absence, Picayo returns to his native Cuba. He captures the world he left when he was six years old. Memories of old clothes hung to dry in the sun, and of old washbasins in the yards of his Havana neighborhood have been translated into images of a silent and evanescent presence. Showing the deterioration through the patina that time and circumstance has left upon it, these images were easily recovered. The inhabitants, the island’s architecture, and its customs seemed to be suspended in time.

The invitational piece “TV’s, Havana” depicts two television sets in Picayo’s neighbor’s living room. One television broadcasts the news, the other sits like a sculpture, unworkable yet unable to be tossed away; a testament to the past and an unwillingness to remove what is simply no longer functional. In the photograph “Casa Picayo” the words CASA PICAYO engraved in cement are still visible, decades after the religious store owned by Jose’s grandfather ceased to exist.

Born in Cuba, Picayo moved to Puerto Rico in 1966, and then on to Ohio. Once in New York he studied photography at Parsons School of Design. Jose Picayo is known for his fashion photography. He has shown in several group shows, this is his second solo show at The Robin Rice Gallery.