“The Great Leap” is an exhibition of representational paintings created by Cuban artist Nelson Jalil. The one-man show takes its name from Jalil’s decision to immigrate to the United States.
“Obviously I’m talking about the process of becoming an immigrant, which is a huge step for any person,” Jalil divulged.
In 2021, Jalil reluctantly concluded that he could no longer remain on the island he loved so dearly.
“We have a terrible dictatorship in Cuba,” the artist explained. “In 2021, we had some big protests. I got involved in those protests and, after a while, it was dangerous and also unbearable to stay in Cuba.”
His flagship painting, “The Great Leap,” depicts a swimming pool with no bottom and a trampoline viewed from above.
“It’s like a metaphor of taking this big step where you have to, you know, face the unknown,” Jalil said.
Jalil has incorporated two different series in this exhibition. He calls the first “Amnesia.” It consists of compositions in which libraries, book cases and archives are engulfed by wind, water, fire and lush vegetation. Jalil shares his intention.
“When I depict libraries and file rooms exposed to the four classical elements, I’m talking about censorship, loss, impermanence and things like that,” Jalil said.
With “The Country of Empty Pools,” Jalil excoriates the cultural and moral emptiness of his former country as a consequence of the repressive authoritarian political regime under which it has operated since 1959.
“The Great Leap” is on display in the grand atrium of the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center through September 26.
THE BACKGROUND:
Nelson Jalil created the artworks in “The Great Leap” over the past four years. While he painted the majority since arriving in Miami, some date back to his last days in Cuba prior to his immigration to the United States.
“When you visit the exhibition, you will see my work has some kind of narrative content related to my country of origin, my experiences as an immigrant and also my experience in this new process of insertion in this new context of Florida,” Jalil noted. “I’m not interested in reproduction because I think that art is more about the message or the meaning connected to the image you are working with.”
One of the paintings in the “Amnesia” series, “Study #4,” depicts two stacks of burning books. “The image of the bonfire of books has re-occurred at multiple instances in Human History,” says the Davis Art Center’s syllabus for the show. “These are all moments when a group in power denies others the knowledge contained in the volumes condemned to fire. The act of burning a book is one of the most conspicuous forms of censorship.”
Jalil has often described the work in his “Amnesia” series as inspired by “the Torquemada effect” in Cuban culture, a term he coined.
In addition to themes of censorship, loss and impermanence, the works in this exhibition further suggest that history, as we know it, is only the ruling party’s perspective of world events, with major omissions and additions.
Jalil’s inspiration for “The Country of Empty Pools” happened one day when he realized that all the public swimming pools in Cuba have either been disabled or wholly destroyed.
“His interest in these kinds of places is directly connected with the idea of empty swimming pools as a metaphor for the country’s current situation,” states the syllabus for the show.
For this series, Jalil contrasts his memory of the abandoned public pools in Cuba with the fancy local swimming pools in found in Miami. “He decided to use these new scenarios for a series of narrative paintings where, in every case, something is happening, something has happened, or something is about to happen,” the syllabus continues.
The Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center is located at 2301 First St. in downtown Fort Myers. For more information, visit www.sbdac.com.