At Home with Artist Carlos Betancourt

On Sunday, December 16 Commissioner hosted a private home tour with Miami-based multidisciplinary artist Carlos Betancourt as he opened his home in El Portal to an small group of Commissioner Collectors. The artist rarely opens his home to the public, and the intimate experience provided a matchless moment of engagement with a world-renowned artist, insights to his process, a discussion of his collecting journey and so much more.

About Carlos Betancourt
Carlos Betancourt (San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a Miami-based multidisciplinary artist whose work can be found around the world.

His current exhibition, "Process as Ritual, Future Eternal", is now on view at Primary. The occasion marks Betancourt's first show with the gallery and his first solo in Miami in just under a decade. The works in the show draw on a transcendent moment from Carlos’ young life, when he realized traditional Christmas ornaments, representations of familial traditions, were left behind in a move from Puerto Rico to Miami, Florida. The objects lost triggered a life long response of collecting and protecting a broad range of precious objects discarded, preserving acting memories to be re-contextualized in a way that playfully engages with the viewer.

Carlos’ work can be found the following permanent collections: Smithsonian' National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Perez Art Museum Miami PAMM, Florida, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas, New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana, Palm Springs Arts Museum, California, Bass Museum of Art, Florida, Museo de Arte Ponce, Puerto Rico, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (MAC) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Faena Arts District, Miami, Florida, Orlando Museum of Art.

In October 2015, ''Carlos Betancourt: Imperfect Utopia'' was published by Skira/Rizzoli. Imperfect Utopia explores Betancourt's body of work with more than 250 images and text by Robert Farris Thompson, dean of the history of Art Department at Yale University, Inaugural poet Richard Blanco and writer / critic Paul Laster.  He is also credited for starting the Miami Beach arts underground movement through his studio Imperfect Utopia.

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