TRANSFORMATION AND COEXISTENCE IN BRENDA CABRERA’S UNIVERSE

In her exhibition La pesca (Fishing), presented in the project room of El Apartamento in Madrid, Brenda Cabrera (Havana, Cuba, 1997) delves into an ancestral practice of engagement and territorial relation, making it the central protagonist of her oeuvre. Continuing the conceptual lineage of her previous series, the Cuban artist draws upon a distinct visual vocabulary to portray a universe of figures in dialogue with dreamlike ecosystems, exploring identity while analyzing contemporary forms of coexistence.

Through the act of fishing, Cabrera invites us to re-imagine this relationship as an interspecies exchange. To this end, her paintings construct a singular universe through aquatic scenes and organic forms in which the human and the marine converge in a unified act. The works evoke an timeless ocean that suggests both the origin of life and an incipient genesis of identity. This narrative is further reinforced by a symbolic vocabulary wherein figures, bodies, and their surrounding environment—without departing from figuration—seem to negotiate the dissolution of their own contours.

Water functions as a symbol of continuous transformation and a liminal space between distinct modes of existence within a cosmos where diverse approaches to nature converge. Across this realm intersect science, ritual, ancestral wisdom, ecology, and both material and immaterial transmission. Cabrera deliberately refrains from establishing a hierarchy, striving instead to demonstrate how these varied epistemic frameworks complement one another in the ongoing construction of knowledge.

Brenda Cabrera: La pesca is on view through November 7, 2026, at El Apartamento, Puebla, 4, Madrid, Spain.