José Manuel Fors
(b. Havana, 1956)
José Manuel Fors is a photographer and painter. He graduated from the San Alejandro School of Fine Arts in 1976 and the Havana Institute of Museum Studies in 1986. He has worked at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. He participated in Volumen Uno, the groundbreaking exhibition in 1981 that changed the Cuban art scene alongside José Bedia, Juan Francisco Elso and Rubén Torres Llorca, among others. His work has been shown in various solo and group exhibitions in Cuba, Venezuela, Japan, France, Belgium, Mexico, Spain and the United States. He was an artist in residence at the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada, and won the Gold Medal at the 49th International Photographic Salon of Japan in 1989. He has received numerous awards and prizes, including an honorable mention at the First National Salon of Ecological Art in 1996, the Distinction for the National Culture in 1999, and the Alejo Carpentier Medal in 2002. His works are part of the collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Cuba; the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; the Museum of Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; the Museum of the Americas, Nicaragua; the Photographic Library of Pachuca, Mexico; the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Los Angeles, California, among other important institutions.
