José Bedia Valdés (b. 1959, Havana, Cuba)

Initially trained in Cuba (at the San Alejandro school from 1972-76 and the Instituto Superior de Arte from 1976 to 1981), Bedia initially encountered Western subject matter from afar.  He first rose to prominence during the 1980s as a member of the Cuban artistic group “Volumen Uno” which sought to re-energize Cuban art.  1985 he came to the U.S. as a visiting artist and in 1990 was selected to represent Cuba at the Venice Biennale.  Later that same year he emigrated from Havana to Mexico where he settled in Mexico City, and from there he moved to the United States, to Miami, where he settled with his wife and son.

He’s heavily influenced by Afro-Cuban spiritual practices and the art of indigenous African peoples, which is the source of his primal and story-telling artistic energy.   He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1993 and his works are in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Tate Modern, and Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, among others. 

Available Works

By Appointment  —  200 East 30th St, Kansas City, MO 64108 USA  — (+1) (816) 533-6766 —  inquiry@rachaelcozad.com