The Horizon is a Circle: Ricardo Manuel Díaz and Margarita Fainshtein
The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art is honored to present paintings by Chicago based artist Ricardo Manuel Díaz and printed works by Nova Scotian artist Margarita Fainshtein in The Horizon is a Circle, a two person exhibition that contemplates displacement, a sense of place, and what home means across geographic borders and cultures. Díaz, a longtime Cuban political refugee, reflects upon the nuances and challenges associated with coping with family left behind, adjusting to a new way of life, economic distress, and degrees of acceptance. Fainshtein, thrice transplanted from Ukraine, to Israel, to Nova Scotia invites visitors to assume active roles as an 'observer' or 'participant', paralleling conditions of the seeming acceptance of official political citizenship and the reality of cultural discrimination. How welcome can one feel in a country tainted with disdain for those unlike the majority? How do deep-seated attitudes embedded in history continue intergenerationally and affect family? Both artists bring awareness to these and other issues as they explore what it means to bridge past and present across cultures - gathering information about how one exists in the world, what gets internalized with time, and what gets fixed in one's memory. The Horizon is a Circle will be on view through August 22, 2021 and a catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.