Henry Bermudez in Philadelphia

Woodmere proudly presents an exhibition of the work of Philadelphia-based, Venezuela-born artist Henry Bermudez. The exhibition, guest curated by Gaby Heit, is the most extensive exploration to date of Bermudez’s art, including approximately 40 works and chronicling the artist’s experience since arriving in Philadelphia as an immigrant and seeker of political asylum in 2003.

 

As a young artist in Venezuela, Bermudez built a successful international career. While still in his thirties, he represented Venezuela at the XVII Venice Biennale (1986). In 2003, however, Bermudez learned while traveling in the United States that the political regime in Venezuela had determined that his art expressed ideas that threatened authoritarian cultural objectives. With a friend in Philadelphia who was able to give him temporary shelter, he began his journey as an immigrant, coming to terms with a dramatic twist of fate and the need to build a new life and career in the US. Since that time, his work has continuously evolved. Connections to the mythological subjects and visual strategies of his Venezuela-based work remain, but his art today also reflects the rupture of displacement and the culture of Philadelphia.

 

Although he began his career as a painter, Bermudez now experiments across a variety of media. He incorporates painting with cut paper in large-scale works that display a density of intertwined, three-dimensional forms, rainbow-like color, patterning, and sparkling textures. While his compendium of aesthetics continues to evoke ancient Latin American mythologies and a hybrid of symbols and religious lore from pre-Hispanic, Judeo-Christian, and Afro-Caribbean influences, Bermudez also grapples with US cultural norms and patriotism and the bewilderment that comes from a bifurcated personal journey.

 

An exhibition catalogue for Henry Bermudez in Philadelphia, which includes an essay by curators Gaby Heit and Jorge Luis Gutierrez, and a selected chronology of the artist's career, along with numerous images of Bermudez’s works, is available in the Museum Store and at Amazon.com: Henry Bermudez in Philadelphia: 9781888008128: Art Museum, Woodmere, Heit, Gaby, Gutierrez, Jorge Luis, Valerio, William R.: Books.

 

Thursday, February 22 | 5:30 pm

FREE

 

Please join us for an opening reception celebrating Henry Bermudez in Philadelphia on Thursday, February 22nd from 5:30-7:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

 

 

Saturday, March 2 | 1 pm

$10 (FREE for Woodmere Members)