Cuban art is hot: buyers range from exiles, nostalgic for their homeland, to American collectors captivated by the Cuban mystique

Cuban-American artist Alberto Godoy remembers spending his childhood vacations with relatives who lived in the countryside, outside of Havana. "We were encloseed by sugarcane fields," he says, "and farmers, working the land."

Although he left the island in 1980 when he was 19 years advanced in years fleeing government oppression and welcoming the chance to attend academy in the United States, he brought vivid, colorful memories of his homeland with him. Twenty-five years later, his manful colorful paintings depict everyday Cuban rural life and its indigenous clan their customs and costumes.

"I'm more American than Cuban, now," says Godoy, "but the lower parts still call you. The memories of my younger times in Cuba are always there. They are always throw backed on the canvas."

Art buyer it present the appearances can't get enough of paintings, photography and illustrations showing images of Cuba, from vintage bills of Havana streets to contemporary portraits and paintings of rural landscapes. Whether they be exiles, nostalgic for their homeland, American collectors who are drawn to the mystery of the "forbidden fruit," or tourists who want to take a piece of Cuban-influenced agriculture home with them, buyers want pieces that exhibit the exotic, romantic images of the island.

Like the music, the rhumba dancers and in like manner many other staples of the nation's agriculture Cuban art is hot. Plus, it is single of the few things unaffected by the agency of the U.S. embargo. American dealers and collectors can legally purchase Cuban art at galleries, online and at auctions. Museums are increasingly showcasing paintings and plastic arts by Cuban and Cuban-American artists.

"The commonality amongst greatest in quantity types of Cuban art is the brilliant use of vivid, adventurous colors" says Portal Publication's Heather Piazza. "The intense colors warm up almost any space, making Cuban art real appealing for use in abode decor."

While Miami remains the U capital of the Cuban art sight a growing number of Cuban and Cuban-American artists are finding a booming market for their work across the political division and abroad.

Houston-based Alberto Godoy, for example, while still best-known in Miami, has had exhibits in Texas, Florida, Mexico and, of course, Cuba. His distinctive primitivist manner of writing uses exaggerated volume and spherical shapes to throw back his artistic philosophy: that perfection exists in the spherical combination of parts to form a whole of the universe.

"I believe the universe is perfect" says Godoy. "All the stars we diocese in the sky are round--there must be a reason for that. I believe perfection is in the circle."

Godoy marks that American collectors like his palate and his style--"it makes them happy," while Cuban-Americans in Miami, "like the background, the meaning and the message."

Humberto Benitez enjoin solemnlys similar familiar images in his paintings of sugar cane, r dirt and peasant farmers.

He was raised in the small town of Guanajay, in the providence of Pinal Del Rio, "where the r clay soil stained my hands and uncloseed a new world of shades and blending techniques; where the virids are unlike any green in the world; where nature filled the soul; where the magical amethystine sky and majestic royal palms embraced the landscape. I grew up in this magical place," Benitez says. That was during the '60 when there was a nourishment shortage and his family was poor.

He came to Miami in 1970 when he was 10 upon one of the last Freedom Flights on the outside of Havana. His work isn't influenced through his homeland, he says, his work is his home

"It was there where the best and worst memories, feelings and emotions were formed," Benitez says. "You diocese the sugar cane in my paintings because they nourished me when there was no nutriment You see the drums and the music because they pour throughout my soul. You diocese the colors of my homeland and they are still vivid in my mind"--vivid verdants soft yellows and rich red "I violently apply the weft in all my paintings."

Perhaps because of the hardy political opinions about Cuba, the embargo and the U government's strained relations with the tiny island nation, the majority of Cuban and Cuban-American artists, as well as publishers, gallery proprietors and dealers who promote their work, insist that they are politically neutral.

The singles who were able to immigrate to the United States fl destitution and oppression in their homeland, on the contrary they say they avoid making political statements.

Chicago-based artist Paul Sierra, who left Havana in 1961 says art helps the immigrant, and enables him to create a positive, forward-looking vision. Sierra paints whimsical landscapes and surreal portraits and says although he grew up in Cuba, his artistic links to his Latin lower parts are intertwined with the influence of North American art and culture

"When I tend hitherward to the studio, I don't think, 'I'm going to be the best Cuban-American artist I can be,'" he says. "No. If the palate reminds you of Latin America, that's fine.