Soft Traveler (acrylic on canvas, 2025) by Aneet R. Fontes
by Jaiden van Bork
Reality is fleeting. The second a moment appears, it is gone. We live most of our lives, more or less, bathing in the soft glow of memory—remembering things only a second too late to have experienced them in real time. Our society, our culture, and our emotions are all steeped in memory, for better or for worse. The question becomes: Where does memory end and reality begin?
Cuban-American artist Aneet Fontes has shaped her career around conveying memory through her painting. She paints cityscapes—streets, buildings, windows, sidewalks, and the vague human figures that occupy them. Having lived for some time in the unique urban landscape of Havana, and later Miami, Fontes became entranced by the architecture of cities. “My mother is an architect,” she explains, “so I guess I grew up admiring these kinds of themes [in] cities. I always liked to draw and paint landscapes with a mix of different architectures… the modern and the old. I think it’s a great way to show the history [of] a city.”
Fontes says she always starts with a photographic reference. Unlike some of her impressionist colleagues, she does not paint en plein air, instead leaning into the transposition of a scene through photograph and through memory as a central tenant of her work. “I let myself be guided by the feeling I had when I took the photo,” she explains, “And also by whatever emotional state I am in while I paint.” Thus, the end result is something filtered through several layers of subjective perception. She describes a certain “veil of nostalgia” that appears over many of these scenes, saying, “I like to emphasize the dramatic light and shadows—like [I am] telling a story through urban landscapes.”
In each painting, Fontes plays heavily with motifs of reflection as well—in windows, in pools of water, and other reflective surfaces. She describes these mirror-images as “another layer of reality” — in a way, a distortion similar to that of memory. Thus, each image presents the scene in multiple ways, all pointing to an invisible reality that evades the viewer’s gaze, only implied by its multiple reflections.
Of course, many painters play with light and reflection, but Fontes’ work seems to almost go a step further. Not just a part of the scenery, these mirror images are presented so clearly and vividly that they almost feel like parallel universes. The distinction between reality and illusion becomes blurred in Fontes’ paintings, creating almost post-cubist compositions where multiple perspectives are chaotically layered on top of one another such that the “truest” one (if it exists) becomes hard to identify.
Fontes worked in a print shop for some time after graduating from art school in Havana. “I learned a lot of etching [and] lithograph techniques,” she says – techniques which guided her early work before she began to experiment more with painting in color. However now, in some of her newest work, Fontes returns to these techniques once again. Using a technique known as “dry brushing,” Fontes uses a small amount of acrylic paint on her brush without any water to create dramatic charcoal-sketch-like scenes in black and white. “I wanted to go back to the beginning,” she explains.
In addition to Havana, her paintings also depict the busy streets of Boston and Provincetown, where she has also spent time, but Fontes is surprised that she has not yet painted Miami, her current home. She says that perhaps it is less interesting to her because of its closeness. For Fontes, fascination lies in things that are distant, places she has been in the past.
It is through this lens that she has repeatedly painted Havana, where she studied art for some time. Though she was born in Cuba, Fontes indicates that her perception of her home country’s state today is limited to the few times she has recently been. “I think it’s kind of more of a romantic view of Havana…” she says, “…The older generation struggled [but] I am very optimistic about the younger generation. They are very independent and I love to see that.”
This sense of distance and obscurity that Fontes leans into with all of her work seems apt to describe America’s relationship with Cuba—or any foreign country for that matter. Often, for those of us who do not live there, even our view of a place like Provincetown is shaped mainly from memory and photographic representation, a vague fragment of something real. But Fontes’ work does not place judgement on this transformation, rather it simply invites us to think about memory, about the real and the illusory, and where the line in between truly lies.
Since before she came to the United States, Fontes has worked with Galeria Cubana, showing work at its locations in both Provincetown and Boston. She describes encountering Provincetown for the first time with excitement, saying “I fell in love… The color, the light, the point [where] the sun sets… It felt familiar in some way.” She notes that the presence of the sea in Provincetown is particularly comforting, too, much like back in Cuba. She says, “It was a breath of fresh air”.
Now Fontes presents new work at the gallery, alongside her partner Sebastian Leal, another artist with a shared appreciation for built environments like Provincetown. Together, the two offer new ways of viewing the busy streets that surround us in our day-to-day lives.
Aneet Fontes’ work is on view in Resonancia (Resonance): William Acosta, Aneet R. Fontes + Sebastian Leal at Galeria Cubana, 357 Commercial St., Provincetown now through August 25. Fontes and Leal will attend a reception there on Friday, August 15, 6 – 9 p.m. For more information call 508.487.2822 or visit lagaleriacubana.com.
