Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas: Artista de Calidad
Under the Bridge Art Space:
12425 NE 13th Avenue. (ground floor)
North Miami, Florida 33161
Opening: Sunday, November 23, 4-6 pm
Exhibition dates: November 23, 2025–January 4, 2026
Under the Bridge is proud to present Artista de Calidad (High Quality Artist), an exhibition that looks back at the work Cuban artist Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas produced in Havana during the second half of the 1980s. It brings together, for the first time for public viewing, works that were part of his censored exhibition Artista de Calidad, which was scheduled to open inOctober 1988 at Galería Habana but never did. The censoring of the show—at a moment when cultural politics were entering a critical phase due to the turn toward glasnost and perestroika across the socialist bloc—proved to be an inflection point in Rodríguez Cárdenas’s life and work. It led him to adopt a more openly critical stance, often loading his paintings with scatological references, the figure of Fidel Castro, and ironic twists on revolutionary political slogans. Eventually, Rodríguez Cárdenas left Cuba for Mexico and ultimately made his way to the UnitedStates. After many years in New York City, he now lives in Miami.
Alongside works from the original censored Artista de Calidad show, the exhibition at Under the Bridge will also present other works from the late 1980s, including text paintings, drawings, collages, screen prints, and documentary photographs of performances.
Rodríguez Cárdenas was born in Sancti Spíritus in 1962 and graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in 1983. He is considered one of the leading voices in what has come to be known as “the new Cuban art” of the 1980s. His work can be found in the collections of the Ludwig Forum in Aachen, Germany; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana.
Artista de Calidad at Under the Bridge is organized by [NAME] Publications, which is currently at work on a monographic publication on Rodríguez Cárdenas’s 1980s work, to be released in Spring 2026.
Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas: Artista de Calidad is made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, Teiger Foundation and The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation.
