Carlos Betancourt

A painter, photographer, and mixed-media artist, Carlos Betancourt and his seminal studio, Imperfect Utopia, are credited with helping to launch the Miami art scene in the 1990s. ?Carlos Betancourt's oeuvre is a lush explosion of radiant, eccentric colors in which he explores the kaleidoscope (multiracial, multilingual, transcultural) of Caribbean culture. His work alludes to issues of memory, beauty, and identity, and he bends the lines between art, photography, and nature in his photographs, collages, installations, and conceptual pieces. His studio, Imperfect Utopia, helped to create a contemporary arts environment in Miami, challenging the existing arts establishment. It served as the underground address of the artistic melting pot that was Miami Beach in the '80s, visited by some of the most important artists and writers of the day. This exuberant volume explores Betancourt's complete body of work, with 250 images and texts by art critics Paul Laster and Robert Farris Thompson.