Edel Rodriguez is a Cuban-American artist renowned for his bold figurative works that explore identity, cultural displacement and mortality. His work, inspired by his personal history, religious rituals, politics, memory and nostalgia, offers a reflection on identity and the human experience. Born in Havana in 1971, he grew up in El Gabriel, a small farming town surrounded by tobacco and sugar cane fields. In 1980, he left Cuba with his family during the Mariel boatlift to settle in Miami, USA. It was there that he first encountered American popular culture, an influence which, combined with socialist propaganda and insular culture, continues to inform his work. In 1994, he graduated with honours with a degree in painting from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In 1998, he received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Hunter College in Manhattan. Throughout his career, Rodriguez has completed commissions for numerous publications, including The New York Times, TIME Magazine and The New Yorker. His works are held in major collections, notably those of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as in numerous private collections.