the valley of the absent papayas. that lock you up. that search for you. that beautify you. and you fall in love with them so much. as if everything had to be shown. as if everything had to be fucked. even after death. to ambush your anguish. and spill through the holes. full of images. hickeys. scratches. with which you flee from the steam. from where you get your pain. that disappears. while I tell you all the silence. I really want to kiss you, man.
Yaismel Alba Garib, 2024
Acrylic, Encaustic, Enamel and Canvas
16 x 20 in.
WOW YEAH
work by Yaismel Alba Garib
March 2 – 31, 2024
On View Sundays
11 A – 2 P
Opening Reception
Saturday, March 2nd
4 – 7 P
Join us in celebration of the opening of Yaismel Alba Garib’s solo exhibition, WOW YEAH.
naked you throw me into the sea. catfish in fish-free waters. revolted, confused, scattered. under a night without moon. thinking that I’m alone. that there is no one that could come. till my lips crack. and my body lose the heat. the one bursting out from the airbrush. tight to my hand. like you.
Yaismel Alba Garib, 2023
Acrylic and Canvas
48 x 60 in.
Far from Cuba. Always on the edge. Expecting. Surviving. A catfish on the shore. I no longer feel the entrance to my hometown, nor the nights with those who stayed. Self exile. Exhaust. To play every day in a BDSM room. Everything passes, and only the painting remains. The walls, on which murals and photos of the murderers once stood, are now torn down. On the surfaces, there are paintings. Affirmations. Cuba before the disaster. Future. Paradiso by Jose Lezama Lima. Everything comes together in Chicago. Comfort Station welcomes me. The space is a bedroom. Sex. Pain. Calm. Where distance produces innocence. Where false identity is assumed to see images that excite you. And the WOW and the YEAH blend together as the paint settles and the cum shoots out.
I am the bubbling. lost. wet. the one that evaporates. I am the bed. sulfur. poured from the anvils. that is torn out with hammer blows. stuck to the ground. praying to a glory hole. where nothing comes out. I want to split myself in the middle. so that everything comes out. and stay like a used pussy. like the ass that swallows the fist. disrupted.
Yaismel Alba Garib, 2023
Acrylic and Canvas
48 x 60 in.
Born in Cuba, Yaismel Alba Garib is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Chicago. His artistic journey explores the complex interplay between nothingness and somethingness, navigating the realms of completeness and emptiness. Exhibiting a penchant for performance art and painting, his work has been showcased in various notable exhibitions.
In 2022, Smooth and painful and Emptiness is completeness were featured at Fracas Art Gallery and the Graduate Exhibition at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, respectively. The previous year, Garib’s work engaged audiences with Loving Cuba and The life I give at Tangential Unspace Art Lab and Old Ways New Tools at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exploration of physicality continued in 2020 with Is my body strong enough to hold a rebar? presented at Tangential Unspace Art Lab. His international presence is marked by the inclusion of El acto de destrucción es un acto de salvación at the XIII Havana Biennal in 2019 and Critical Control Point at Jose Marti Park in Miami in 2018.
Yaismel’s artistic evolution is rooted in education, having pursued an MFA in Studio Performance at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 2020 to 2022. Prior to this, he earned a BFA in Theater Studies from the University of Arts (ISA) in Havana, Cuba, spanning from 2010 to 2015. His work is a testament to the constant transition between familiar completeness and elusive emptiness, embodying a moment that resides in perpetual flux, taking from and giving back to the world.
Learn about
Prisoners Defenders
like a jellyfish. like a jellyfish. como una medusa. like a jellyfish. como una medusa. gelatinous. transparent. dangerous.
Yaismel Alba Garib, 2023
Acrylic and ACP
30 x 36 in.