Current.Miami headed north to Fort Lauderdale where NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale presented an art talk by artist José Bedia and museum director and chief curator, Bonnie Clearwater. The discussion explored the influence that tribal and ethnographic art has had on Bedia’s work and career, and also examined the significance of African works in the museum’s current exhibition, African Art: Highlights of the Permanent Collection.

José Bedia
Born in Havana, Cuba in 1959, José Bedia was one the pioneers of Cuba’s celebrated 1980s generation of artists whose work radically transformed Cuban art. Bedia’s intense study and explorations into the traditions, beliefs and symbols of African, Afro-Cuban, and Native American cultures and religions have been significant influences on his work and he himself was inducted into the Regla de Congo, a religion brought to Cuba by slaves from West Africa.  He is also an ardent collector of African art, acquired during his extensive travels.

Bedia’s work has been exhibited in numerous U.S. and international solo and group exhibitions, and is included in such museum collections as the Museum of Modern Art, NY, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum and Tate Modern, London. He currently lives and works in Miami.