From the Artist
I took this image when I was living in Mexico. It came from my interest in the Aztec mythologies. The leopard represents the power, the ability to move, the ability to hunt, and the capacity to be so furious and powerful to overcome the enemy. They were the image of the army. They represent the most powerful extreme warriors. In battle, they were the most important figures of soldiers that won the battle. This is the symbol of these people in the army of the Aztec. For me, it represents in many ways the spirit of confrontations and the connection with this inside of yourself.
Emerged from the Caribbean tropics, my artistic life has been an unexpected hybrid of ideas informed by an acute sensitivity to the past, stenciled as part of a personal inventory onto different foreign places that throughout my life have become my home and my artistic working territory.
—Excerpted from interviews conducted by Drexel University students, supervised by Jen Katz-Buonincontro, PhD, 2021–2022
My paintings are steeped in mythical dream imagery within an otherworldliness of carefully constructed creature and plant forms. Further defined by my identity as a Latino, my work combines symbols and myth from ancient pre-Hispanic cultures with the iconography of contemporary art. The result of this autobiographical vision is a blend of cultural diversities that further defines itself through my immersion in societies other than the one I was born into. Through my exposure to religious and social syncretism, my visual itinerary became charged with powerful influences which provided a unique vision of the African Diaspora in the Americas, its symbolism, and iconography.
—Excerpted from https://inliquid.org/artist/bermudez-henry/, accessed 6-3-2021
Henry Bermudez is an American contemporary artist who was born in Venezuela in 1951. He has explored and expressed his interest in visual representations of cultures and mythologies in varying forms throughout his career. A journey of...
Read More ⟶