Artist Samuel Riera was awarded the 2017 AFIELD Fellowship for his initiative Arts at the Margins of Art, based in La Havana. ¹

Cuban artist Samuel Riera is the instigator of Riera Studio. With Arts at the Margins of Art, cuban artist Samuel Riera aims to stimulate the artistic creativity of patients confined in psychiatric institutions and children with special needs living in La Havana. Initiating or enhancing the dialogue between art and clinical institutions, Riera’s project intends to foster multidisciplinary exchanges between medical (psychologists, psychiatrics) and art professionals (curators, artists, critics, academics, art students). ² The initiative calls upon the patients’ individual artistic abilities, this initiative shows the potential of visual arts to nourish their diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. ³

Samuel Riera (1978, La Havana, Cuba) is an artist based in La Havana. In 2012 he created Riera Studio, an exhibition space that operates outside traditional institutions and established aesthetic norms. Artists promoted by the studio are ignored by the Cuban official cultural structures. They often come from vulnerable social groups and live in extreme precariousness, lacking recognition from both society and their families. Through the creation of Art Brut Project in 2013, Samuel Riera has shown these artists’ works in 9 local exhibitions and more than 20 art shows overseas.

For more info: facebook.com/rierastudio and rierastudioart.com