Javier Castro (b. 1984) is a Cuban artist whose groundbreaking work focuses on the use of video and multimedia installations to explore the human experience and modes of survival. Castro examines Cuban contemporary society by presenting a unique perspective of diverse realities; from pleasures and frustrations, to vice and violence, language and love, and the other hidden complexities of life. He allows the human voice within the work to speak directly to the viewer, without manipulating or judging his subjects.

Castro has been awarded several grants and notable commission programmes. His work has been shown in more than fifteen countries from the United States to Senegal, Colombia to the United Kingdom. He lives between Havana and New York.

EDUCATION

2004- 2009- Bachelor in the Superior Institute of Art. ISA. Faculty of Fine Arts. Havana. Cuba

1999-2003- National Academic of Fine Arts. San Alejandro. Havana. Cuba

1994-1999- School of Fine Arts José A. Díaz Peláez. Havana. Cuba.

COURSES

2007- 2009- Diploma Humanities, PP.Sch. of Cuba, attached to the University Christopher Columbus of Mexico. Escolapios of Guanabacoa. Havana. Cuba

2004-2006- Cathedra of Conduct. Founded and directed by Tania Bruguera. (Diploma) Superior Institute of Art. Havana. Cuba

AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS AND RESIDENCIES

2016- Residence Art Center of South Florida. Miami. Fl. USA

2015 – Scholarship Programs and Commissions CIFO. Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation. Miami. Fl. USA

2015- Residence Cannonball. Miami. Fl. USA

2010 – Special Mention. Festarte Video Art Festival – III International Competition. Rome. Italy

2008 – Residence DOG. Espacio Lab Aglutinador. Havana. Cuba

• Residence Batiscafo. Havana. Triangle Art Trust. HIVOS Foundation. UK
• Documentary Award. Cuban Film Press Association. Cuba

COLLECTIONS

• 2018 – CAM-USF. Contemporary Art Museum-University of South Florida. Tampa. USA
• 2017 – Ludwig Foundation. Germany
• 2015 – Ella Cisneros Collection. Miami. USA
• 2015 – CIFO- Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation. Miami. USA
• 2015 – Nara Roesler Collection. Sao Paulo. Brazil
• 2014 – Kadist Art Foundation. San Francisco. CA. USA
• 2013 – Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba. Havana. Cuba
• 2012 – Daros Latinamerica Collection. Zurich. Switzerland
• 2009 – Mediatheque Caixa Forum. Barcelona. Spain

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020

• A4  Art Museum x KADIST Video Art Screening Series. A4  Art Museum. Chengdu. China
• The Castle Of The Impossible Jungles. Art Chateau. Serrigny. France
• Tools for Utopia. Kunts Museum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee. Bern. Switzerland
• LOOP Videoart Festival. Barcelona. Spain

2019

• XIII Havana Biennial. Havana. Cuba
• At The Fringes Of Identity. Contemporary Video Art from Han Nefkens Foundation. Historic Museum of Lecce city. Italy
• FunkaFest. “Geographies of the Singularity”. Palacio de Cristal. Guayaquil. Ecuador
• Resilience and resistence in the African Diaspora. Museum of Black Civilization. Dakar. Senegal
• Plural Domains: Selected Works from the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO). XIV Cuenca Biennial, in Cuenca, Ecuador
• Climate Change Cuba/USA. USF/CAM Contemporary Art Museum. Tampa. USA

2017

• History of Sexuality. MASP. Sao Paulo. Brazil
• Adios Utopia. Itinerant Cuban exhibition at Museum of Fine Arts. Houston/ Walker Art Center. Minneapolis. USA
• Art x Cuba. Contemporary Perspectives since 1989. Ludwig Foundation. Aachen. Germany
• Sensitive Constructions: The Latin-American Geometric Experience at Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection. Cultural Center FIESP. Sao Paulo. Brazil
• Wilde Noise. Bronx Museum. NYC. USA
• Rotative Repository of Latin American Video Art: Mono Canal. Museo del Barrio. New York. USA/ Die Ecke Gallery. Santiago de Chile. Chile/ 2016 – 67 Ludlow. New York. USA

2016

• Growing up in Neverland. Cuban Contemporary Art. Scarfone/Hartley Gallery. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. University of Tampa. USA

2015

• 10 Mercosul Biennial. Porto Alegre. Brazil
• If You Leave Me Can I Come Too? Hunter East Harlem Gallery. NYC. USA
• Cuba: Fiction and Fantasy. Daros Latinamerica. Rio do Janeiro. Brazil
• Intersections (After Lautréamont). CIFO Art Foundation. Miami. FL. USA

2014

• Frontiers in question. Artepari Gallery, Graz/ Haaaauch Quer, Klagenfurt. Austria

2013

• Citizens of the world: Cuba in Queens. New York/ Cleverland Museum. Ohio. USA
• Dilated Biographies. Museum Boston University. USA

2012

• Video Art Fair AKT in MADRID ESTAMPA. Madrid. Spain
• The 11th Havana Biennial. Havana. Cuba
• Art Is Not Easy. Links Hall. Chicago. USA

2011

• O2 VIDEO AKT International Video Art Biennial. Loop Festival-Faire. Barcelona. Spain
• DNA. Villa Manuela Gallery. UNEAC. Cuba

2010

• Video Cubano. 8th Floor Space. New York. USA
• Invisible Violence. Private/ Public/ Social. Festarte Video Art Festival – Competition III International. Rome. Italy
• Traveling Show by Ravello (SA. Italy) from the 21st to 23rd of October. La Torre Maggiore di Villa Rufolo in Ravello San LAB – International Colloquium
• My Body Is A Weapon. Satellite Exhibition The Nature of Things. First Biennial of the Americas. Denver. Colorado USA. Screened-in Fuse Box in Denver Art Museum Gallery
• ZET. Foundation at the Kunstvlaai. Westergasterrein. Amsterdam. Netherlands
• Visions: Challenges. Loop Video Art Festival 2010. Barcelona. Spain

2009

• 31 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana. Cuba
• PLAFF. Providence Latin American Film Festival. USA
• Confluences II inside: Contemporary Cuban Art. NHCC Art Museum. National Hispanic Cultural Center New Mexico. USA
• Always in the struggle. Loop Festival. Mediatheque Caixa Forum. Barcelona. Spain
• Videoarde. Critical Videos in Latin America and the Caribbean. Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico. DF. Cultural Center of Spain in Montevideo, Uruguay. Film Ochoy- medio. Quito, Ecuador.  MOCA Cultural Center, Buenos Aires and Cultural  Center  of Spain in Cordoba, Argentina

2008

• Erotica. Museum of Fine Arts, International Pavilion. Havana. Cuba
• State of exchange: Artist from Cuba. Iniva. United Kingdom
• One minutes Buren Word. Dutch- Flemish Cultural Center. Brussels. Belgium
• 6th Festival of Poor Cinema. Holguín. Cuba.