Freedom through art

(Biographical note on Miguel Betancourt and his work)

Miguel Betancourt was born in Cumbaya in 1958.

Fundamental in his art education was the Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Moreno, whom he met in 1974. In 1976 and 1977 he attended a painting workshop at the Milwaukee Art Museum. At the end of the 1970s, he entered the School of Pedagogy and Literature at PUCE, from which he graduated in 1982. In 1988 he was invited by the US State Department on a cultural tour. In that same year, he received a scholarship from the British Council to enter the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, an academy where he befriended British artists such as John Hoyland.

His representations of the country include his participation in the XLV International Venice Biennale, his solo show at the Istituto Italo-Latino Americano in Rome, 1993; Guest of Honor at the V International Art Biennial SIART, La Paz, 2007; VI Beijing International Art Biennale, 2015; and New York Latin American Art Triennial (NYLAAT), 2022.

His work has been part of important exhibitions such as: Eros in Ecuadorian art, National Museum of Fine Arts (Chile) and Anthropological Museum (Lima), 1998; Ecuador in Spain, Casa de América, Madrid, 2000; Ecuador beyond concepts, Instituto Cervantes gallery, Rome, 2012; Latin American Pavilion (LAP), International Art Fair, Beijing Exhibition Center, 2013; Ecuador in Focus, at the OFID Headquarters, Vienna, 2014; ARTE15 in homage to the international event Habitat III, Quito, 2016. From 2008 to the present, his work is part of a traveling exhibition, Imago Mundi, sponsored by this Italian foundation.

In 2017, an individual, traveling exhibition began in various Asian cities (Beijing, Nanjing, Seoul, Tokyo); In 2018 Ninfas, Meninas y la Mirada del Pintor is presented at Alianza Francesa, Quito and, also, at Casa de la Cultura, Cuenca. Later in 2019 he exhibits Mnemografías, Saladentro Gallery, Cuenca; and Lecturas de Quito, at the Global Migration Forum, Quito, 2020. In this same year, the series Transparencias del país de la mitad, painting on various papers, is presented at the Torre del Reloj Gallery, Mexico City; in 2022, Cosmogonías de un pintor is exhibited at Alianza Francesa, Quito.

Betancourt has received recognition, such as the Pollock-Krasner Prize conferred in 1993 by the homonymous foundation in New York; and, in December 2020, he received the Oswaldo Guayasamin Award in a solemn session of the Quito Metropolitan Council. He is a founding member of the Art Resilience movement, Paris, 2014.

His work can be found in public and private collections: the United Nations Gallery, in Vienna and Geneva, respectively; Inter-American Development Bank, Tokyo; Diners Club del Ecuador, Quito; Italian-Latin American Institute, Rome; Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), Caracas; Art Museum of the Americas (OAS), Washington D.C.; Museum of Art, University of London (UCL); OFID (the OPEC Fund for International Development), Vienna; Imago Mundi Foundation, Treviso; Art at the Limit AAL, Santiago de Chile; Museum of Modern Art, Cuenca; United Nations Organization, UNAIDS, Geneva; Permanent Mission of Ecuador to the UN, New York.

His artwork appears in editorial publications such as: Betancourt: from Silence to Color, Editorial CCE, Quito, 2021 (book about his work); Latin American Art Since 1900, Thames & Hudson, London, 2020; Ecuador: Light of Time, Contemporary Artists from Ecuador, Imago Mundi, Antiga Edizioni, Treviso, 2017; The passing of dreams, poetry and painting, Editorial del Trauco, Chile, 2016; The Album of the 6th Beijing International Art Biennale, China, 2015; Imágenes a Trasluz, Editorial House of Ecuadorian Culture, 2014; Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in London: The Slade School of Fine Art & UCL Art Collections, London, 2005; New One Hundred Artists, Mundo Diners, Quito, 2001; 200 Years of Paintings from Quito, Citymarket, Quito, 2007; Betancourt, Paradiso Publishers, Quito, 1996.