CARLTON FINE ARTS ICE T & ÆTHELSTAN

The Story Artist Vincent Peters, aka ÆTHELSTAN, opened his show “Art is Dead” to celebrate Black History Month at Carlton Fine Arts on 5 rapper and actor Ice-T supported the exhibition and said, “I went through a lot of censorship in my career. I felt that this show was something I should be involved in.” Ice-T also bought the first work in the series called Flames. created the show in response to Decree 349 in Cuba, which forbids Cuban artists from any type of creative expression without approval from the government.

ÆTHELSTAN’s new collection was born out of conversations with Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most influential people, and performance artist Maykel Castillo, a Latin Grammy-winning rapper. Both artists were imprisoned under Decree 349, and are members of the San Isidro Movement, made up of artists who have banned together to protest the Cuban government’s censorship. “Art is Dead” featured 18 acrylic and oil paintings as well as portraits of Jay-Z, Jean Michel Basquiat, NASA Astronaut Victor Glover, and Ice-T, all of whom have inspired Peters’s career. All profits from the series are going to support artists through the nonprofit Decree349R.org. Guests included Libbie Mugrabi, Sofie Mählkvist, and Peter Thomas Roth. carltonfa.com