Cuban-American Artist Elmer Castillo Presents ‘The Spiral Cannot Expand’ During Venice Biennale 2026

The Spiral Cannot Expand. A portrait of a woman

Cuban women raising their voices against injustice despite intimidation and repression

Cuban-American visual artist Elmer Castillo presents The Spiral Cannot Expand at Venice Biennale 2026 through paintings, books, Murano glass and performance.

What distinguishes this work from political contemporary practices is its refusal to simplify. The Spiral persists in attempting to grow but that persistence becomes the work’s most haunting gesture.”

— Mariela Ballesta

MIAMI, FL, UNITED STATES, May 19, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Artist Talk and Book Presentation During Venice Biennale 2026

Cuban-American visual artist and author Elmer Castillo will present an artist talk and book presentation for The Spiral Cannot Expand on Wednesday, May 20 at 6:00 PM at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello. The event will take place during the vernissage of a group exhibition curated by Mariela Ballesta and featuring 32 Latin American artists as part of the Venice Biennale 2026 collateral events.

The exhibition includes works from Castillo’s ongoing series The Spiral Cannot Expand, inspired by the endangered endemic Cuban mollusk Polymita picta (Cuban colored snail) and developed through layered surfaces combining acrylic, Cuban soil, fibers, roots, tobacco leaves and resin. The artist will also present two spiral sculptures made of Murano glass, extending the visual language of the series into sculptural form while maintaining its central idea of contained expansion and suspended movement.

The starting point of the series is the spiral as a natural structure associated with growth and development. In Castillo’s work, however, the spiral appears interrupted and forced back onto itself. Inspired by the fragility and endangered condition of the Polymita picta, the project establishes a parallel with the prolonged social, economic and political deterioration currently affecting Cuba after six decades under communist regime.

Rather than approaching these realities through direct political imagery, Castillo explores them through material tension, fossilized movement and structures that insist on growth while remaining trapped within their own limits. Organic materials embedded into the painted surface become fragile capsules of memory, preservation and suspended transformation.

Within the series, two portraits occupy a particularly human and political dimension. They represent the Cuban people living under precarious conditions, marked by fear, scarcity and repression, but also by dignity and resistance. One of the portraits named "Canaleta" references to Jonathan Muir, a Cuban teenager imprisoned in Ciego de Ávila after protesting against the lack of freedoms in Cuba. The work reflects the vulnerability of a generation growing up amid censorship, political persecution and uncertainty. The female portrait stands as a symbol of the many courageous Cuban women who continue to raise their voices against injustice despite intimidation and repression.

During this day of public transportation paralysis in Venice caused by a citywide strike, Elmer Castillo also carried out an improvised performance using GPS tracking to trace a contained spiral through the city over several hours accompanied by other artists and bystanders. The resulting satellite drawing transformed interrupted movement and physical exhaustion into a temporary cartography of containment.

Alongside the exhibition, Castillo will present both the printed publication and a unique handmade artist book recently accepted into the ASAC Library Collection of La Biennale di Venezia for archival preservation and online consultation.

EVENT DETAILS
Who: Elmer Castillo, Cuban-American Visual Artist
What: Vernissage, Artist Talk & Book Presentation
When: Wednesday, May 20, 2026 — 6:00 PM
Where: Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, Venice, Italy (Free Entry)

About the Artist
Elmer Castillo is a Cuban-American visual artist and author based in Miami. His work combines painting, organic materials and sculptural interventions to explore memory, fragility, interrupted growth and the accumulation of historical traces within contemporary surfaces.

Daniella Dalmasso
Art by Elmer Castillo
+39 347 270 8068
info@elmercastillo.art
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