As the runner-up on the first season of the reality television show, “The Amazing Race,” Frank Mesa helped introduce audiences to the exciting sights and sounds of cultures of almost a dozen different countries. With this month’s opening exhibition at ChangoLife Arts, a new Cuban art gallery housed in Ethan Cohen’s expansive, internationally focused KuBe art center in Beacon, Mesa has reignited his long-held passion for international cultural exchange.
“I loved being such a large part of facilitating exposure to new cultures for people who were watching ‘The Amazing Race’ from home,” Mesa says. “ChangoLife Arts is all about creating a dialogue between the people of Cuba and the Hudson Valley.”
Mesa, a first-generation Cuban American whose parents immigrated to New York City in 1960, was born and raised in Queens and moved to the Hudson Valley in 2016. “My parents were the only ones in my family who came to the US, and they instilled a very strong sense of the culture in me,” says Mesa.
After meeting his wife, Asia, in Beacon, she encouraged him to find a way to bring Cuban culture to their favorite Hudson Valley city. The two quickly landed on the idea to open an art gallery. “There is a very vibrant arts scene in Cuba. With the embargo, there’s so much that doesn’t make it to the US about the Cuban people,” Mesa says. “They have so much to offer, but they’re just so closed off from the world.”
The name for their new gallery, ChangoLife Arts, is a reference to the Yoruba warrior god Chango, who was merged with the image of the Catholic Saint Barbara by Africans who were enslaved in Cuba so they could continue practicing their religion. “ChangoLife is a representation of the strength of Cuban culture, and how it’s been able to survive through all of its adversities,” Mesa says.
With its strong focus on international art, Ethan Cohen’s KuBe in Beacon seemed like the natural choice for a gallery space. Located in the former Beacon high school, the art center is currently home to over 60 artist studios, 10 gallery spaces, and two libraries, plus outdoor grounds, and roof areas for sculpture. “Mr. Cohen is famously known for working with artists from America, Africa, Iran, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Pakistan, and Thailand, and welcomed the opportunity to have Cuba added to his center,” Mesa says.
To start building the gallery’s collection, Mesa worked with one of his cousins in Cuba to search for local artists whose works were representative of the country’s contemporary art landscape. On his next visit to Cuba, Mesa met with three of the artists—Sheyla, Mijail Ponce, and Eddy—and purchased a collection of their works to bring back and exhibit in the Hudson Valley.
“Sheyla is an incredibly talented 19-year-old artist who was educated in the best art school on the island,” he says. “She ran out of material for her paintings and was primarily working in pen on cardboard. We helped purchase more materials for her and set her up with a studio, and the pieces she’s working on now are outrageous.” Mijail Ponce’s realist works are painted on bed sheets instead of more expensive canvas, and Eddy’s watercolor and acrylic paintings have Cuban newsprint peeking out from behind the brushstrokes. “One of the things about Cuban people is that they have so much ingenuity. They use whatever they have available to them,” Mesa says. “They lack resources but not resourcefulness, and they’re not discouraged from continuing to pursue their passion.”
ChangoLife Arts’ first exhibition, “Seres Imperfectos” (Imperfect Beings), will run from June 24 through December 27 at the KuBe art center in Beacon. An opening reception for the public is scheduled for June 24 from 6 to 8pm. A portion of all proceeds from gallery sales will go to humanitarian aid for the Cuban people through the Centro Martin Luther King in Havana, Cuba.
This article appears in June 2023.
