Mythologies
The exhibition offers a comprehensive survey of Ayón’s oeuvre, tracing her evolution from small-format, colorful lithographs to her iconic, large-scale black-and-white collographs. It highlights her technical mastery and her unique ability to use printmaking to construct immersive, narrative environments.
Belkis Ayón: Mythologies is the first Nordic exhibition devoted to the Cuban artist Belkis Ayón (1967-1999), held at Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden. The exhibition presents key works from her brief but intense career (mid-1980s through the late 1990s), focusing on her collograph printmaking technique and her visual universe inspired by the mythologies and rituals of Abakuá (an Afro-Cuban secret society). Ayón’s works explore themes of myth, silence, power, ritual, gender, and identity, especially through reinterpretations of the myth of Sikán, a female figure central to Abakuá lore but traditionally excluded from its rituals. The show includes over 30 artworks and sketches, including largescale multi-panel works, monumental collographs, early colored prints, and later, austere black-and-white pieces.
Exhibition Description
Ayón’s visual language centers on the Abakuá mythology, particularly the story of Sikán, a woman whose fate within the society became a metaphor for themes of secrecy, exclusion, gender, and power. Through collography, Ayón developed dense, textured surfaces that evoke both ritual and myth, giving voice to a figure traditionally silenced in Abakuá lore. Works such as Sikán (1985), La cena (The Supper), La familia, and La consagración I–III exemplify her shift from color to a restrained palette of black, white, and gray, which heightened the symbolic and emotional intensity of her art.
Gallery
