This piece of art I saw it at Miami art museum. Even though the whole floor was made by the same artist, something that I was not expecting, this piece of art caught my attention. Maybe because of the size of the art, this piece of art covered pretty much the whole room. The room had 3 regular walls. I started to read the significance of the art and the history behind the figure which was really interesting. The author's name is Jose Bedia. He also had a lot of different paintings in that exhibition. Once I started searching in his life and work I found that he is well-known for that kind of exhibition. .
Jose Bedia (Cuban, b.1959) is an abstract painter who illustrates ideas of spirituality and indigenous cultures. He studied at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas San Alejandro in 1976, and at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba, in 1981. Four years later, in 1985, Bedia became the artist-in-residence at the State University of New York in Old Westbury. The artist also spent time with the Dakota Sioux on the Rosebud Reservation; studying the Sioux culture influenced his contour narrative style. Bedia's first major exhibition was the group show Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France, in 1989. He was invited to participate in the SaÕ Paulo Biennial in 1994. .
Bedia also creates sculpture installations that reflect his interest in Indigenous Art. His recent retrospective, "Transcultural Pilgrim", at the Fowler Museum at the University of California Los Angeles, included paintings, alcoves and altars that held peyote boxes, Yaqui masks, and Central African power figures. In the installation Figure Who Draws His Own Horizon Line, Bedia explores identity, and one's own past and future while confronting obstacles. The artist also includes a confrontation between nature and machines, a common theme in many of his works. Bedia is considered part of the 80's Generation group of migrant Cuban-American artists who used Afro-Cuban spiritual references in their art work.
