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J. Johnson Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Carlos Betancourt, a Miami photographer who examines life with a sense of humor, controlled spontaneity, glitz, and glamour. The exuberant artist creates sleek, provocative photographs that capture family, friends, and acquaintances from all walks of life — from beauty queens to drag queens. He fuses nature with consumer culture, ancient conventions, and personal history.
Although predominantly a photographer, Betancourt's work behind the lens is only a portion of his art. His concepts materialize with the help of family, friends, and acquaintances in complex photo performances. Betancourt creates elaborate scenes of human interaction with an eclectic array of props. He embellishes models with glitter and paint, adorns, poses, then calls action and records his creations with a camera. He is at once art director, set designer, stylist, choreographer, and producer. His newest body of work also includes several series of complex photomontages painstakingly assembled from innumerable individual images extracted from hundreds of the artist's photographs.
Betancourt's elaborate scenes honor personal, familial, cultural, and historical perspectives. "My work is attached to the past. I collect people, I collect ornaments, I use artifacts. But I bring the past into the present," Betancourt explains.
Betancourt presented a solo show at J. Johnson Gallery during its first season and was invited back to curate Miami: Visions of Now in 2004. He has exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach since the international art fair's inception 8 years ago and is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Florida Department of State Millennium Cultural Recognition Award and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant. Betancourt's work hangs in prominent collections such as Metropolitan Museum of Art and Smithsonian Portrait Gallery and has performed above estimate with Sotheby's auction house.
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