José Morbán

Born in the Dominican Republic in 1987.

José Morbán is a visual artist who lives and works in Santo Domingo/Dominican Republic.

He works from photographs, documents, and other memorabilia acquired by chance, which he uses to attempt to make sense of the history of the place now called the Dominican Republic and its relation to the remainder of the Caribbean. He creates fiction from these documentations as a way to amend our collective memory and the figures who shape it, resulting in paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations.

He is a graduate of the School of Design at Altos de Chavón in La Romana/Dominican Republic. His recent exhibitions include Orgullo Nacional, Centro Cultural de España, Santo Domingo (2024); Sunlight Under the Seafloor, MAC, Puerto Rico (2024); Tropical is Political: Caribbean Art Under the Visitor Economy, Americas Society, New York City/USA (2023); Pal Patio at Calderón Gallery, New York City (2022) and one month after being known in that island, Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger, Basel/Switzerland (2020).

He was an artist in residence at Corsicana Artists & Writers Residency, Corsicana/Texas/USA (2023); Pagoda Imaginaria, Ciudad de Guatemala (2022) and Art Omi, Ghent/NY/USA (2021). His work features in the collections of JP Morgan Chase, Centro Eduardo León Jiménes and Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Morbán is a member of ONTO (@ontopub), an artist’s publication active in Santo Domingo and New York City.