José Manuel Fors
José Manuel Fors is a contemporary Cuban artist born in Havana in 1956.
His work is principally based on installations and supported by photography.
His first artistic forays, during the early eighties, were part of what has been coined "The Renaissance of Cuban Art".
His artwork has been shown in renowned museums and galleries in the United States, Europe and Cuba.
[1] José Manuel Fors graduated from the Academy of Art San Alejandro in 1976.
He then studied at the Institute of Museology in Havana from 1983 to 1986 and, at the same time, worked as museographer in the National Museum of Baux-Arts.
In 1981, Fors participated in one of the most important shows in Cuban artistic renewal, called Volume I.
Subsequently, he switched from material abstraction to installations as his primary art form.
His first personal exhibition, "Accumulations" (1983), thus set the stage for some of his most recurrent topics and methodologies as an artist.
Fors is often considered a photographer, despite the fact that he infrequently engages in photographic work and, in some cases such as in the early versions of "Fallen Leaves", it is merely documentary support.
Furthermore, the photographs he usually uses in his installations are employed to reveal his interest in memory as topic in his work.
In addition, their creations are inspired by the literature of some of the most important Cuban writers, mainly Eliseo Diego and Dulce Maria Loynaz, whose verses title some of Fors' artworks.
Lens Work: Celebrating LACMA's Experimental Photography at 50.
Collateral XI Bienal de la Habana, Cuba.
Pan American Art Projects, Miami, Florida, USA.
Cuba Avant-Garde: Arte Contemporáneo cubano de la Colección Farber.
2007 Cuba Avant Garde: Arte Contemporáneo cubano de la Colección Farber.
Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida, USA Cuba Avant Garde: Arte Contemporáneo cubano de la Colección Farber.
Museo Ringling, Tampa, Florida, USA Habanart à Québec.
Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, USA 2006 Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Brasil.
2005 Documenting Poetry: Contemporary Latin American Photography.
Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, San José State University.
Shifting Tides: Cuban Photography after the Revolution, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Los Angeles, CA, USA.
State University of San Francisco, CA, USA.
I Salón Nacional de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo.
Milano, Italia 1994 X Abril Mes de la Fotografía.
Plástica Cubana Contemporánea de los Ochenta.
Tokio, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Japan.
Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño.
2016: National Plastic Art Awards 2007: Teaching Special Category as Consultant Teacher, Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana, Cuba.
