José Balboa (Havana, 1976) is a young Cuban artist who has become remarkable mainly due to his documentary and staged photographs where he reflects on human nature and Cuban historical development. He preferred –before the already trite epic photography–, rethinking the game of male and female roles representing a duel, a constant struggle between sexes, power and its opposite. When he lingers before history, then he gives relevance to the small social and political tales, those that are glimpsed in architectural remains, in destroyed urban landscapes or in the very identity of Cuban people. He uses for it a chromatic range reduced to black and white with predominance of grey and an also somber lighting. José Balboa has deserved several awards and recognitions and he integrates today that group of photographers who are interested in oxygenating the current Cuban visual arts scene, in granting a new course full of formal and conceptual richness.
EDUCATION
- 1998 Superior Institute of Art (ISA), Havana
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015
- Don’t You See!, Collateral to 12th Havana Biennial, Havana
2012
- Jabberwocky, Conventions Palace, Havana
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2013
- Robando espíritus, Fototeca de Cuba, Havana
2012
- Halo, Servando Gallery, Havana
- Club no sé k, Collateral to the 11th Havana Biennial, Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña, Havana
AUDIOVISUAL
2013
- Ahora si llego, Road Movie DOCUDRAMA
- Felipe Cardeña “Me gusta soñar,” Video Art, Apocryphal Documental
OTTHER WORKS
- Jury Member for the Salon of Contemporary Art of Camagüey, Camagüey, Cuba
- Workshops and conferences, as professor, about New Media, Salon of Contemporary Art of Camagüey, Camagüey, Cuba
- Artist, curator and producer (in collaboration with frency), ARTLAB 21 Foundation, Germany