| CARLOS BETANCOURT |
Born in 1966 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carlos Betancourt moved
to Miami in 1981, studying art and architecture at Miami-Dade
College, and later graduating from the Art Institute of Fort
Lauderdale. Now dividing his time between Miami and the
Caribbean, he has had solo shows at the Museo de las Americas,
San Juan; the Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables; and at OMNI-Art,
Art Basel Miami Beach. Betancourt’s work has been featured in
group exhibitions at the Fort Lauderdale Art Museum; the San
Antonio Museum of Art; and the Bass Museum of Art, Miami
Beach, among other venues. He is the recipient of numerous
grants and awards, such as the Florida Department of State
Millenium Cultural Recognition Award, a National Endowment for
the Arts Grant, and the City of Miami Beach Arts Council Grant.
Selected public collections including Betancourt’s work are The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Portrait
Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the Miami Art
Museum; and the Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo.
Deeply connected to his roots as the Puerto Rican-born son of
Cuban parents, multi-disciplinary artist Carlos Betancourt seeks
to imbue his work with the magical power and spiritual essence
of the African, Afro-Caribbean and pre-Columbian cultures. He is
best known for his large-scale, richly colored photographs of himself
and his friends, whose bare skin he has ritualistically stained
with ancient symbols, arcane texts, and graffiti-like markings.
Mysterious in meaning and written backwards, Betancourt’s personal
mirror-writing is intended to communicate with the spirits
of his ancestors, reflecting the Kongo belief that all things are
reversed in the hereafter.
Created in 2001 for Ferrell Law in Miami, the three elegant,
mixed-media works incorporate photocopied
images of the artist’s own hands and feet set against
views which can actually be seen from the 34th floor windows of
the firm or elsewhere on the property. Symbols and markings from
ancient or imagined sources and the repeated motif of the hand
are spread across the surface in brightly colored contrast to the
black and white images. A recurring element in Betancourt’s work,
the hand is a sign of his physical presence, and of artists’ collective
desire, from the dawn of history, to create signs that communicate
meaning.
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