José Bedia

A comprehensive retrospective of Cuban artist José Bedia, exploring five decades of work rooted in tribal symbology, shamanism, and ethnographic fieldwork across global ancestral cultures.

José Bedia: 1976 – 2026: A Five Decade Field Study is a rich exploration of the career and work of Cuban artist – José Bedia. From being a formative member of the “Volumen Uno” Cuban art renaissance, Bedia’s international outreach continually grew from the 1980’s onward, reaching worldwide acclaim - spanning from his participation in the monumental exhibit Magiciens de la Terre in 1989 to winning First Prize at the Beijing Biennale in 2010. His unique artistic craft focuses on organic elements, tribal symbology, and shamanism from diverse cultures. Bedia’s work and artistic creations are deeply informed by living and past ancestral communities everywhere and his personal interactions with them, while simultaneously using a “field work” approach of an ethnographer or anthropologist to create his paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations. Anchored by his 5-decade retrospective at the MARCO Museum of Monterrey, and also accompanied by text from various art scholars, this book will look at his trajectory focusing on his different styles and periods throughout the years, as well as images from his personal travels, and tribal collection, that directly impact his artistic output.