Wilfredo Prieto. Speaking Badly about Stones

Wilfredo Prieto (1978, Sancti Spiritus) is one of the most promising young artists to emerge from Cuba in recent years. He is often described as a ‘baroque minimalist’: he injects his work with a maximum of narrative power, meaning and emotion with minimal use of form and materials. However Prieto's work is never ponderous, on the contrary. Although he does not shun the socio-political themes of his home country Cuba, (and the rest of the world), his work is still humorous, poetic and light.

Speaking Badly about Stones presents the very first cross section of Wilfredo Prieto's artistic practice over the past fifteen years. The exhibition also focuses on the more or less neglected socio-critical aspect of Prieto’s oeuvre, which addresses relevant contemporary topics such as (over)consumption, energy waste and (hyper)capitalism. The exhibition is orgnized by S.M.A.K with the collaboration of AC/E's PICE programme for the internationalization of Spanish culture.

The first monographic catalogue was published of Wilfredo Prieto’s work (from 1999 to 2014) to accompany this exhibition. The catalogue includes contributions from Gerardo Mosquera, Guillaume Dessanges, Gabriël Orozco, Wilfredo Prieto and Thibaut Verhoeven. The book was published by Mousse Publishers, Milan, co-produced by S.M.A.K., Ghent, and Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig and with the support of Gallery Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona/Madrid, Gallery Annet Gelink, Amsterdam, Gallery Kurimanzutto, Mexico and Fundación Botín Santander, Madrid.

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