Introduction Life Streams: The Cuban and American Art of Alberto Rey LYNETTE M. F. BOSCH his book is a collaborative project and Mark Denaci (St. Lawrence Univer- intended to provide an overview of sity, Department of Art and Art Histo- T the life and artistic career of Alberto ry), along with contributors Jorge Gracia Rey, a Distinguished Professor at the State (Samuel P. Capen Chair, SUNY Distin- University of New York at Fredonia. The guished Professor, University of Buffalo, catalyst for this volume is a projected Department of Philosophy and Depart- exhibition of Rey’s work at the Burchfield ment of Comparative Literature), Isabel Penney Center for the Arts in Buffalo, Alvarez Borland (Murray Professor in New York, titled Biological Regionalism: the Arts and Humanities, College of the Scajaquada Creek, Erie County, New Holy Cross, Spanish Department), John York, USA scheduled for March 14–June Orlock (Samuel and Virginia C. Knight 22, 2014. The art historians and curators Professor of Humanities, Case Western contributing chapter essays to this vol- Reserve University, English Department), ume are an interdisciplinary group com- Sandra Firmin (Curator, University of posed of the book’s editors, Lynette M. Buffalo Gallery), and Benjamin Hickey F. Bosch (State University of New York, (Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Geneseo, Department of Art History) Masur Museum). Each of the essays in 1 © 2014 State University of New York Press, Albany SP_BOS_INT_001-012.indd 1 1/6/14 8:54 AM 2 LYNETTE M. F. BOSCH this volume reflects an aspect of artistic, in the world of contemporary art. The literary, critical, or historical theory that exhibition at the Burchfield Penney Art addresses aspects of the complex artistic Center is a meaningful opportunity for trajectory that Alberto Rey has traveled Rey to bring his work to his home com- in his life and career. munity. Rey’s paintings are of fish and Rey’s work includes painting, sculp- landscapes that function as symbols and ture, video, and installation, and is cur- metaphors for the people he has met and rently focused on exploring issues of the places in which he has lived. The alle- ecological sustainability through imagery gorical possibilities thus created by this related to fish and fishing and the water- network of associations opens a space for ways in which fish live. Throughout his the spectator to engage with Rey and with career, Rey has focused on giving visual the cultural environments represented in form to his concerns with identity and his work. identities, an aspect of his work that Rey is an artist, a husband, father, son, springs from his hyphenated identity as brother, and active community activist a Cuban-born American. Rey is an inde- and conservationist, with strong memo- fatigable traveler, who has extensively ries of his late sister, and his home is in explored the United States, Cuba, Europe, Fredonia in Western New York State. He Latin America, the Caribbean, and Ice- is also a transnational Cubanborn Ameri- land, searching for ways in which he can can, who has lived his life in the United relate the individual human experience to States on the hyphen of two identities. the larger universal life of our world. As an Brought out of Cuba at the age of three, artist whose work is part of major nation- Rey went, with his parents and sister, first al and international museums and collec- to Mexico, then Miami, then Barnesboro, tions (Brooklyn Museum, Albright-Knox Pennsylvania, before settling in Fredonia, Gallery, Bronx Museum, Fort Lauderdale in 1989, to become a professor of draw- Museum of Art, Extremaduran and Latin ing and painting. Cultural diversity is part American Museum of Contemporary Art, of his identity, and a personal search for Badajoz Spain, and the Burchfield Pen- meaning has generated his desire to know ney Art Center, among others), Rey has and understand different people and cul- achieved a significant level of recognition tures. This desire stems from his identifi- © 2014 State University of New York Press, Albany SP_BOS_INT_001-012.indd 2 1/6/14 8:54 AM INTRODUCTION 3 cation with different groups and cultures, comfort they had in Cuba, and with the from his Cuban origins to his present life same practical skills. Rey’s current life has in Western New York State. combined aspects of his family’s history. In Cuba, Rey’s family belonged to a He is a professor of art and a professional self-identified group of Cuban criollos, artist, the first in his family, and he lives in who had settled in the small, rural town the small, rural town of Fredonia, where of Agramonte, where they owned a small he continues to fish (although he releas- farm that they worked on themselves. es his catch), as part of the set of skills They were a diverse family of mixed eth- that his family traditionally possessed. As nic roots, who considered their home cul- a result of his experiences of assimilat- ture beyond Cuba to be Spain, because ing from a mulatto Cuban culture into a most of the family had come from Spain, mainstream American culture in Barnes- with a few coming to Cuba from the boro, Rey’s initial problematic encounters Canary Islands. Consistently, Rey’s fam- with early discrimination taught him to ily on all sides had always lived in small, accept difference in himself and others. rural villages. As a result, the family He also learned how to relate to different had practical skills that assisted them in cultures, being neither fully Cuban nor surviving and adapting in Cuba and in fully American or even Cuban American, the United States. Always, Rey’s family as he lacked a Latino community, while worked hard in both countries at a range growing up in Barnesboro. Presently, of manual jobs, from farming and small Rey has achieved a level of comfort with manufacture to small business, along with international culture that enables him to hunting and fishing as pastimes and to connect to different groups at every level supplement their diet. Rey’s father, who of society that he meets as he travels for had an exceptional talent for mathemat- his work. The desire to extend his under- ics, earned a PhD in education at the Uni- standing of people and cultures that he versity of Havana, which enabled him to learned from his personal experience of retrain in the United States as a teacher being outside both his home cultures has of Spanish. The family settled in Barnes- brought him, after a long trajectory, to boro, Pennsylvania, and slowly rebuilt the study of fish and their worlds. The their lives to the same modest level of path that led Rey to this juncture of his © 2014 State University of New York Press, Albany SP_BOS_INT_001-012.indd 3 1/6/14 8:54 AM 4 LYNETTE M. F. BOSCH life started, in 2000, with a series titled Another part of Rey’s desired outcome is Trout Encounters and two other series, that, by seeing the streams, countries, and Biological Regionalism and The Aesthetics the biodiversity of trout, the active specta- of Death. The series were a way for Rey to tor can have a direct experience of nature address recent changes and losses in his akin to that which was Rey’s catalyst for life by connecting his life to the natural this series. Through Rey’s paintings, this environments we share with the animals exhibition, and this book, engaged spec- living alongside us. It is Biological Region- tators can learn about environments they alism that is the focus of the Burchfield might not otherwise see, and participate Penney Art Center exhibition. in experiences of nature they might oth- For Rey, trout have become a symbol erwise miss. of a variety of personal and global issues. One goal of this book, in conjunction For the directorial staff of the Burchfield with Rey’s past, current, and future exhi- Penney Art Center, and for the artist and bitions, is the establishment of a renewed the authors of this book, one major goal understanding of American cultural and of this exhibition and book is to com- environmental diversity in relation to the municate Rey’s intentions so that all can global; Rey’s desire is to connect specific understand the meaning of his images. A manifestations of these aspects of human secondary goal is to enable the spectator experience to the universal whole. The of this exhibition and the reader of this authors of this book have written a series book to relate their own life experience of essays that trace Rey’s trajectory so that and personal concerns about our place in his process and his artistic intentions can the natural world to the images Rey has be transmitted. Each of the essays form- created. Part of Rey’s intention is to pro- ing the book’s chapters was selected to vide a communicative structure in which contextualize a different and individu- participant spectators can increase their al aspect of Rey’s art and life, with the understanding of their lives by looking at goal of presenting a unified and cohesive Rey’s work. Hence, a meditative dimen- explanation of Rey’s work. sion is intended to bridge the solipsistic The first essay in this volume is Lynette gap that separates us from one another Bosch’s “Alberto Rey: Intersections,” by providing a link through his images. which provides a biographical overview © 2014 State University of New York Press, Albany SP_BOS_INT_001-012.indd 4 1/6/14 8:54 AM INTRODUCTION 5 of Rey’s life, his artistic concerns, and phy, Gracia employs authors as diverse as the different stages of his artistic career.