Belkis Ayón
(b. Havana, 1967 - d. Havana, 1999)
Belches Ayón graduated from the “20 de Octubre” Elementary Visual Art School (1982), the San Alejandro School of Fine Arts (1986) and the Superior Institute of Art (1991), all of them in Havana, Cuba. She was a Professor of Engraving at the latter two institutions from 1993 to 1999, and the Vice-President of the Association of Visual Artists of the National Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC). Her prints, typically made using a collage-like printing technique known as collography, investigate the myth of Sikan and the traditions of the Abukuá, an all-male secret society of Afro-Cuban origin, founded in Cuba in the 1830s. Among her awards are the First Prize at the Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Engraving (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1997); the First Prize at the Encounter of Engraving (Provincial Center of Visual Arts and Design, Havana, Cuba, 1993); and the First Prize at the 1e. Internationale Grafiek Biennale (Maastricht, Netherlands, 1993). Her works are part of the collections of The National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba; the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany; the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, California; The Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California; the Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, Netherlands; and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA, among other important institutions and private collections.
