Catch some of the works of the late Cuban artist Belkis Ayon on show at the Studio at Tate Modern until 25 April 2025.
Her artworks are being shown alongside some of a Chilean female artist Sandra Vazquez de a Horra, as both draw upon specific indigenous belief systems to explore the position of women in society and in nature.
Belkis Ayón (1967–1999) was a Cuban printmaker who specialised in a printmaking process called collography. To create a printing plate, she glued various materials – ranging from sandpaper to vegetable peelings – to cardboard. Once inked, the plate was used to imprint the design onto paper.
Throughout her lifetime, Ayón created allegorical scenes based on Abakuá, a secret, Afro-Cuban brotherhood. Abakuá is part of a belief-system that enslaved people from southern Nigeria and Cameroon brought to Cuba during the transatlantic slave trade. It became one of Cuba’s main religious-cultural groups. Ayón particularly focuses on the only female character, Princess Sikán, connecting her with the struggles of women in the patriarchal society of Cuba: ‘Sikán’s image is paramount in all these works because, like myself, she led and leads a disquieting life, looking insistently for a way out.
Cuba 50 
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