Artist Talk: Reynier Leyva Novo

Thursday, February 8, 2024
6:00pm—7:30pm

Location:
Dudley Recital Hall

Remnants of ideology, markers of absence, and the ephemerality of revolution are embedded in recognizable sites of memory, power, and public space around us. Locating these layered and often obscured traces of political presence, multidisciplinary artist Reynier Leyva Novo excavates – and elevates – historical archives and imagery into today. In so doing, he deepens conversations surrounding the space, memory, and narratives of the past made manifest in the present and future. Former Present Today is the first solo museum exhibition in Texas for the Cuban conceptual artist and reflects upon re-imagined space, public monuments, and collective memory in nationalist ideology and the failed journey to social utopia.

Relocating from Havana to Houston in 2021, Novo combines research and observation into the icons of memorialization to present perspectives across a multitude of global political contexts. This process underscores power within artistic practice to challenge prevailing narratives, confront historical truths, and deconstruct myths. The artist simultaneously reveals and conceals structures, emblems, and figureheads entrenched in the public imaginary to propose alternative forms of memory-keeping in whispers, traces, and fleeting remains of life. Across large-scale sculptural installation to the subtle delicacy of a flower, Novo creates powerful interventionist responses to spaces of monumentality to consider the complexity of political landscapes and unseen dimensions that shape our collective memory and present reality.