By Janet Batet, Miami Arts Journalist

The act of dissent is maybe one of the most authentic exercises of democracies, being a genuine expression of the freedom that embraces society. In the case of Totalitarian regimes, the act of dissent from the central government’s policies turns you into a dissident. This noun, used the very first time in the political sense back in 1940, in the now extinct Soviet Union, becomes an ideological effective tool that identifies dissidents with enemy, justifying that way their repression and open persecution.

The art of Jose Angel Vincench (Cuba, 1974) has been interested in this sensitive controversy for over a decade. “Vincench vs Vincench: A Dissident Dialogue from Cuba”, now open at Art Space/Virginia Miller Galleries, in Coral Gables, presents the artist’s two most recent series: Dissident and Exile.

The starting point for the Dissident series is the three-days visit of former president Jimmy Carter to Havana in 2002 with the aim to promote a dialogue between dissidents and the Cuban government and the subsequent drastic attack to dissidents in 2003, known as Primavera negra (Black Spring), that resulted in the incarceration of 75 dissidents with sentences from 6 to 30 years.

Fourteen of his four-foot Dissident paintings are included in the show. To the abstract expressionist background, Vincench superimposes the use of stencil of the definition of dissident in different languages. This way, the artist creates a dynamic effect between the two layers, being crucial the notions of visible-invisible, the permissible and the silenced, the free forms of abstract painting imprisoned by the corset of the letters and the definitions.

Exile, the installation made out of Kraft paper and twine, is a beautiful metaphor and tribute to everyone who live outside his homeland. Vincench’s proposal is a deconstruction of Cuban reality that encourages a critical reading. Interested in the convergence of the artistic and social criticism, the work of Vincench has not been notably widespread in the island. “Vincench vs Vincench: A Dissident Dialogue from Cuba” showcases more than 150 new painting form this talented artist.

“Vincench vs Vincench: A Dissident Dialogue from Cuba” at Space/Virginia Miller Galleries,169 Madeira Avenue, Coral Gables.