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Otero Alcántara exhibits in New York the drawings he made over five years in prison
The Cuban artist and activist opens "Tocar el cielo" on Thursday at the Foreign & Domestic gallery, with works created during his sentence for the July 11, 2021 protests, according to Martí Noticias.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara opens his solo exhibition "Tocar el cielo" on Thursday, November 5, at the Foreign & Domestic gallery in New York, with drawings and paintings made during the five years he spent in prison in Cuba, he told Martí Noticias.
"I want people to understand that difficult space that confinement is for a human being," the artist said, adding that being a political prisoner adds another dimension: that of a person who should never have been jailed. He said he is taking the works to New York to reach audiences beyond the Cuban community.
Otero Alcántara is one of the founders of the San Isidro Movement. He was arrested during the protests of July 11, 2021 and sentenced to five years in prison for insulting national symbols, contempt and public disorder, a sentence that drew statements from international human rights organizations. He served the full term and was released and sent to the United States in July 2026.
From November 6 to 14 he will present the participatory performance "A los seres que no pude despedir con un beso. Volumen I," which grows out of not being able to be with or say goodbye to his mother and other relatives and friends who died while he was in prison, and revisits a sound piece he created in jail in which he called out to them.
"I want every Cuban who, because of exile, because of migration, has not been able to say goodbye to their relatives, to join this performance," he told Martí Noticias. Over nine days participants will be able to share their stories and name the people they could not say goodbye to, at the gallery at 24 Rutgers Street, in the Lower East Side.
Sources: Martí Noticias
Data updated: 2026-11-05T04:30:00.000Z