Henry Bermudez: Nocturne, 2019, acrylic paint, paper, 12.5" x 27" x 5"

About:

I am an American contemporary artist born in Venezuela in 1951. Emerged from the Caribbean tropics, my artistic life has been an unexpected hybrid of ideas informed by an acute sensitivity to the past, stenciled as part of a personal inventory onto different foreign places that throughout my life have become my home and my artistic working territory.
My paintings are steeped in mythical dream imagery within an otherworldliness of carefully constructed creature and plant forms. Further defined by my identity as a Latino, my visual itinerary combines symbols and myth from ancient pre-Hispanic cultures charged with powerful influences from Judeo-Christian and Afro-Caribbean religions, and further melds these with the iconography of western contemporary art. This blend of cultural diversities is my autobiographical vision that further defines itself through immersion into societies other that the one I was born into. It is my hope that my art can transcend timelines and national boundaries as I join magical dimensions of symbols with supposed western rationality.

Bio:

Henry Bermudez's interest in the visual representations of cultures and mythologies have appeared in his work in varying forms during his career. A journey of geographical, artistic and human observation has taken him from educational experiences in small isolated communities in the Caribbean up to representing Venezuela in the Venice Biennial. His artistic work transcends timeline and national boundaries.

In the Venezuelan coastal Afro-Caribbean community of Borbures, religious and social syncretism provided a unique vision of the African Diaspora in the Americas with its symbolism and iconography. These were his first impacts in the process of breaking from the formalities of mainstream styles learned in school. With these early experiences came the desire for new forms of expression.

Mr. Bermudez attended the National Schools of Art in Venezuela and was awarded a scholarship to the National School of Art "La Esmeralda" in Mexico City. He also studied at New York City's Art Student's League, as well as in Rome. He was selected to be the Venezuelan representative for the 1986 Venice Biennale. His work has been included in many exhibition catalogs such as the X International Print and Drawing Exhibition of China as well as in books on the subject of Venezuelan art.

www.henrybermudezart.com