Human Rights Watch, the international nonprofit organization that monitors the way governments treat their citizens around the globe, sums up the current situation in Cuba in acute terms.

“The government continues to repress and punish virtually all forms of dissent and public criticism, as Cubans endure a dire economic crisis affecting their rights,” states the opening line of HRW’s 2023 World Report.

The report goes on to detail shortages of medicine, food and energy as a backdrop to arrests of protesters and political opposition leaders who are held in overcrowded prisons; harassment of bloggers and journalists suspected of anti-government views; and violence and structural discrimination against women, Afro-Cubans and the LGBT community.

It is within this context of national trauma that Gabriel Sanchez paints people, his friends and acquaintances in Havana and other places, many of them social outsiders who make their way through these troubled days. They are young people mostly, in their 20s or 30s, an age of dreams and ambitions.

In the 14 oil paintings presented in the exhibition “They Devoured Everything” at David B. Smith Gallery, they come off as solitary figures, even the ones depicted as couples. They float in pale worlds, pensive, waiting, quiet yet determined, sometimes gazing directly at the viewer,  as if trying to send some silent message to the world through the medium of the painter for whom they are posing.

Perhaps there is some over-projection in that interpretation of the works. But it is hard to resist. They are young Cubans — artists, gays, progressive figures, and their pictures arrive in the context of knowing what is happening around them.

Consider this line in the HRW report: “The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended over 203,000 Cubans between January and September 2022 — a dramatic increase over the 33,000 Cubans apprehended during the same period of 2021.”

Sanchez adds to the drama with his titles. “Seeking Freedom” he titles one piece that shows a couple standing on a beach, shading their eyes from the sun and looking outward and away from where they are. “They Are Coming for Me” is another, depicting a young male, shirtless and shoeless, sitting on a bed staring off into an unknown distance.

Sanchez, who is Cuban-American and studied art at the University of Colorado in Boulder, places his subjects purposefully in their geographic context. Cuba itself is a character in these narratives, its sunny beaches, tiled floors, its Spanish Colonial architecture.

The works have the feel of the type of art that is present in much of Latin America, and that people associate, sometimes accurately, sometimes not, with painting from that region — people-centered scenes, rich color palettes, sharp contrasts between detailed foregrounds and single-colored backgrounds. Sanchez’s subjects are painted as if they are lit for photo shoots: Their skin shines,  shadows are downplayed, there is a youthful glow to them.

There is, as well, a deep sensuality that falls just short of sexual. In one painting, “Eternal Love,” a male couple, torsos bare, stands breathing distance apart, the emotional and physical bond between them apparent.  In another, a naked woman is wrapped in white sheets on a bed. The title, “The Only Pleasure That’s Free,” suggests she has just indulged in some sort of carnal pleasure.

What the paintings lack is joy and the fullness of human expression. Despite the intensity of color and scenery, Sanchez forces them into a sort of perpetual restraint. Only one of his subjects is allowed to show soul-baring emotion, the young male who appears to be captured wide-mouthed and mid-scream in one of the exhibition’s larger paintings. But its title, “No One Can Hear Me,” undermines the idea that he is fully emoting.

On the surface, Sanchez’s paintings conjure the sort of what-are-they-thinking poutiness that you see in high-fashion advertisements where the models refuse to give away their inner feelings. In some ways, the scenes border on melodrama, and imply that heightened nobility that artists often project, real or not, on the oppressed.

But in this context, that blankness feels profound, as if they are locked away in some cerebral prison that prevents the release of real expression.

That authenticity might come from the fact that Sanchez, who now lives in Cuba, paints people he knows, and he is able to imbue them with a tenderness that transcends their outward composition.

“My paintings tell stories of love, desire, frustration, friendship, doubt and hope,” Sanchez writes in his artist’s statement for the show.

These paintings are different than what normally gets presented in adventurous, contemporary spaces like the David B. Smith Gallery, a showcase for top talent in Colorado but also internationally. They are straightforward portraits, shorter on abstraction and higher on formalism than what we usually see. They are easily read.

But there is a mystery about them that makes them appealing, and a message emanating from them about Cuba that ought to be heard. The fact that they were all painted this year — and it is only April — adds to their urgency.

IF YOU GO

Gabriel Sanchez’s “They Devoured Everything” continues through April 8 at David B. Smith Gallery, 1543 Wazee St. It is free. For info or viewing appointments call  303-893-4234 or go online to davidbsmithgallery.com.

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