Henry Bermudez was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1951 and represented his country at the XLII Venice Biennale in 1986. In 2003, while traveling in the United States, he learned that his work had been labeled politically subversive by the Venezuelan government. Unable to return home, he resettled in Philadelphia, where he established himself through large-scale murals for the City of Philadelphia through Mural Arts Philadelphia.

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His formation is rooted in the Afro-Caribbean culture of Bobures, a small coastal community on the southern shore of Lake Maracaibo, where he taught art after graduating from the Escuela de Artes Julio Arráez. Immersed in the ritual music, dance, and religious syncretism of that community, he developed the iconographic language that defines his work: a layered world of mythological creatures and sacred symbols drawn from Pre-Columbian, Judeo-Christian, and Afro-Caribbean traditions.

His most recent installation, Where the Serpent Sleeps / Falling Sun (2026), spanning 23 by 49 feet, is on long-term view at the Frances Maguire Art Museum at Saint Joseph University. In 2024, the Woodmere Art Museum presented a major retrospective survey of his Philadelphia work.

 

Henry's work is held in collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Neuberger Museum of Art, the Museo de Arte Moderno de México, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He has received support from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund, and CFEVA, and was selected for the Philagrafika Invitational Portfolio, one of the most significant printmaking events held in the United States. His work has been exhibited widely, including in Borderless Caribbean at the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance in Miami. He teaches at CADI for disadvantaged children, and Fleisher Art Memorial. Prior to the pandemic, he co-founded HOUSEGallery1816 in Philadelphia's Fishtown neighborhood, a space for exhibition, collaboration, and community-building through the arts.