New Photobook Release: HAVANA INTIMATE through the lens of Evelyn Sosa
For immediate release:
New York and Havana (Nov. 6th, 2019) – Uncommon Beauty Gallery is pleased to announce the official release of its publication HAVANA INTIMATE, through the lens of Evelyn Sosa, the first and the most comprehensive photo compilation to day of the award-winning Cuban photographer Evelyn Sosa.
With a hardcover and over 170 fully illustrated pages, HAVANA INTIMATE offers a full scope of Sosa’s most renowned series, “Retrato Femenino (Women’s Portraits),” containing over 65 portraits accompanied by bilingual scholarly essays and artist’s statements in Spanish and English. The first edition is limited at 300 copies, print-signed by Evelyn. It is now available in Dashwood Books and McNally Jackson as well as online.
Born and raised in Havana, Sosa captures the intimate strength of Havanan women with a deep compassion and understanding – she is closely befriended with her subjects who are mostly part of the rising community of young Cuban women entrepreneurs and artists. Sosa’s photography celebrates the beauty of women regardless of their skin tones, sexuality, ages, or body types, but at the same time seizes their imperfections, anxiety, and individual nuances. As unveiled in HAVANA INTIMATE, the sensual, powerful, and always emotionally charged black-and-white portraits of her friends as well as a few of Sosa’s self-portraits reveal the depth of the subjects’ gaze and their innate psychology in an unapologetic way.
Grethel Morell Otero, the Cuban Curator who just won the 2019 National Curator Award, once said that “[Sosa’s] work represents something of a vanguard movement in contemporary artistic photography.” In her essay dedicated to this book, “The Female Face of the New Havana,” she recognizes the artistic and historical value of Sosa’s photography which is rooted in the new generation of women “emprendedoras” (entrepreneurs) in Havana who are breaking the historically and systematically patriarchal social strata. She sees Sosa as a “chronicler of this new kind of ‘people’ and ‘celebrities.’” Among these people is Danay Suarez, the Grammy Award nominee Cuban singer and songwriter who is prominently featured with a dedicated chapter in the book. She also wrote the introduction for her favorite photographer, “an artist of the soul.”
A book launch will be held on December 4th, 6 to 8pm, at 81 Leonard Gallery in Tribeca. Limited postcards hand-signed by the artist will be available with the book purchase.
“Ana Lyem siempre te recibe con los brazos abiertos y una gran sonrisa.”
“Ana Lyem always welcomes you with open arms and a big smile.”
Evelyn Sosa, born in Havana, Cuba, in 1989, is a promising photographer who lives and works in Havana. She has exhibited her photography work in Cuba, Japan, and the US. In 2016, Sosa was the winner of the Herman Puig Prize, awarded yearly to the best artist of the Body Photography Salon in Havana. She was recently featured in Vistar Magazine, CdeCuba, Foreign Look Magazine and El Estornudo. (Instagram: @evelyn._.sosa)
Based in New York, Uncommon Beauty Gallery is a globally curated and socially responsible Art Space representing artists from all over the world, from emerging to established. Uncommon Beauty recognizes that minorities, female, queer, and gender non-conforming artists are grossly under-represented in today’s art market and is determined to contribute to improving this unfair imbalance. (https://www.uncommonbeautygallery.com/)
Press contact: Mengna Da, mengna.uncommonbeauty@gmail.com