Carlos Perez Vidal was born in Las Tunas, Cuba, in 1965. He received his formal arts education from the following institutions, each of which is located in Havana, Cuba: Academy of Arts, San Alejandro (1981-83); the National School of Visual Arts (1983-85); and the Higher Institute of Art (1985-89).

 

Addressing the issues of personal identity, historical memory, and cultural stereotyping, Prez Vidal communicates his sociopolitical observations in a visual language that surreally compounds parodic, tragic, and uncanny elements. The artist is known for creating confrontational dialogues between diverse iconographies and the specific framework of the Spanish Colonial altar. Drawing upon the cultural diversity of the Americas, his work reveals unexpected connections between seemingly disparate religious, political, and art-historical icons.

He has been a central figure in the recent Cuban art movement that is known as the Cuban Renaissance. In the mid-1980s, he founded the independent art group La Campana, which was committed to the creation of art that reflected the sensibilities of his generation voicing its ethical challenges to Cuba’s political leadership and social order. The group met with strong state censorship, inclusive of official prohibition as well as a renewed policy of forced emigration of artists and intellectuals. Currently living and working in Miami, the artist has participated in more than seventy exhibitions internationally.