José Bedia was born in 1959, in Havana in Cuba the city where he grew up and studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte. He was a pioneer of the radical transformation of cuban art. His passion for the Native american indians complemented his anthropological studies on Afro-transatlantic cultures. He studying in depth the faith, believes and religion of the « La Kongo Kingdom » (in which he was initiated in 1983). He traveled to Angola as part of the International Cultural Brigades who supported the struggle of the Angolan-Cuban war against Namibia and South Africa. This contact with the mother continent and the war increased his interest about the african roots of american culture.
This interest took him to visit countries such as Peru, Mexico, Haiti, Dominican Rep, Puerto Rico, Zambia, Botswana, Kenya, and Tanzania. After residing in Mexico he moved to Miami Florida, where he currently lives.
His work has been exhibited in Havana, Sao Paulo, the Venice and Beijing Biennales, where he received awards. His works are in NYC at the MOMA, Metropolitan Museum, Whitney Museum and Guggenheim, in Washington DC at the Smithsonian Museum, The Colección Daros (Zurich), MEIAC, DA2, IVAM, CAAM (España), MOCA, MAM and PAMM in Miami.
