Yoan Capote Cuban, b. 1977

Born in Pinar del Río, Cuba, in 1977, Yoan Capote is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, painting, installation, photography and video. His practice begins with raw psychological states which he translates into formally complex works using both traditional and unconventional materials selected for their symbolic and sensory resonance. Capote investigates emotional and conceptual tensions informed by Jungian psychoanalysis, particularly the concept of a collective unconscious. The social and political conditions of Capote’s upbringing in Cuba are central to his practice. His work confronts experiences of isolation, belonging and hope alongside the realities of ideological control, political violence, oppression and containment. While grounded in personal and national history, Capote’s practice extends beyond geographic and ideological boundaries. His work engages broader socio-political questions of migration, identity, power, control and marginalisation, addressing the complexity of life in a globalised world increasingly shaped by displacement and fracture. Through a visual language that is direct, visceral and rich in metaphor, Capote exposes the physical and psychological forces that shape contemporary existence.

Capote graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana in 2001. His work has been exhibited internationally and was featured in the critically acclaimed exhibition Adiós Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art, 1950–2015, which travelled from Cuba throughout the United States, including to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C (2017); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (2017); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (2018); and the Pérez Art Museum (PAMM), Miami, FL (2018). Capote has received awards and grants from prestigious institutions such as UNESCO prize, Paris, during the 7^th Havana Biennale; Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY; Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York, NY; and the Brownstone Foundation, Paris. Capote’s work is held in numerous public collections, include Tate, London; Pérez Art Museum (PAMM), Miami, FL; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY; Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague; Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ; Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zurich; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris and San Francisco, CA; the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; Buhl Collection, New York, NY; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA; and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC.