Carlos Betancourt

Carlos Betancourt’s work defies categorization.  He has worked as an artist and curator, and has also collaborated in architectural commissions.  Much of his work bends the lines between art, photography, and nature, and his innovative techniques have garnered him recognition from galleries and museums around the world.  He remains a symbol of the contemporary art movement that infiltrated Miami, Florida in the 1980s and 1990s.  His artwork is part of numerous public collections including the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo, the Miami Art Museum, and the Museum of Latin American Art in California.

An American-born artist of Puerto Rican decent, Bentancourt initially drew inspiration from innovative contemporary photographers and artists like Cindy Sherman and Jeff Koons.  His work in large format vinyl, photography, and installation are often challenging juxtapositions that encourage the viewer to question some assumption about the established order of art and society.  His studio, Imperfect Utopia, became a meeting place for artists in the emerging contemporary art scene of Miami in the 1980s.

Betancourt has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the Florida Department of State Millennium Cultural Recognition Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and the Miami Beach Arts Council Grant.  He is co-founder of 801 Projects, an arts studio center that provides studio space for visual artists based in Miami. Betancourt has been awarded commissions to create monumental artworks for the Miami-Dade Art in Public Places Trust and for the Puerto Rico Art in Public Places Program and is a symbol of the contemporary art movement, not only in Florida, but across the United States and internationally.