Allison Hill, director of the Sheffield neighborhood's Havana Gallery, immediately apologizes for being a tad "loco." Back just two days from her most recent visit to Cuba, Hill still looks a little travel-haggard, and it isn't just jet lag. The purpose of the trip was to pick up 10 works by two of the most famous artists working in Cuba today, Juan Moreira and Alicia Leal. It's a feat she accomplished herself, proudly displaying the one lone poster tube that housed the exhibit.

"They actually made me check it," Hill says. "I was very worried that it would get lost or damaged, but thankfully, it's OK."She had been pursuing both artists about doing a gallery show for a while, and the pair gave their consent to a show last February.

When Hill arrived in Cuba earlier this month to pick up a selection of works, she was pleasantly surprised: "They both had painted works just for us."

Part of the reason she is in a frenzied state at the moment is because she is in last-minute preparations for her gallery's latest show, "Prints and New Works by Alicia Leal and Juan Moreira." The works are on view beginning Saturday as part of the annual Sheffield Garden Walk Festival. On this particular day, the canvases were placed on the floor strategically around the gallery while Hill decided their placement. The east wall of the gallery is considered "the premier spot in the gallery," Hill says. "I was having trouble selecting which artist to give the prominent wall to. In the end, I ended up displaying both.

"Moreira and Leal are husband and wife.While both are exhibited in U.S. galleries frequently, this is the first time they have been shown collectively in Chicago. They share a home in Cuba, so why wouldn't they share a wall in Chicago? Both artists have works in public and private institutions internationally including the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada and the Center for Cuban Studies in New York.

Hill hopes to tempt festival-goers with the art, sounds and tastes of Havana, including Mojitos. "They aren't necessarily well known in Chicago," Hill says. "Part of the challenge is to get the message out that these are two important artists worth seeing."

It doesn't take a Mojito (or two) to immediately recognize either artist's talent. Moreira's works are immediately reminiscent of the Cubists, but with a bolder sense of color.

She also expects Leal's works to make an impression on Chicago art lovers. "I've been a fan of hers since I before I began working here. She has had an influence on me as an artist."Leal's works have a feminine side to them. She tends to gravitate toward bold colors and thick, black lines that are reminiscent of comic book drawings, giving her surreal paintings a pop-art feel, almost despite the decidedly un-pop subject matter of sexuality, politics and religion.

"There is a simplicity to how she paints," Hill says, "but her subject matter and sense of composition are both excellent." One of the reasons neither artist has overshadowed the other, she says, is because both help and support each other. "They're also both very distinct artists," Hill adds. "There's no mistaking one for the other."