Juan Luis Matos selected as artist laureate for the Bakehouse x Cité internationale des arts residency
JUAN LUIS MATOS SELECTED AS ARTIST LAUREATE FOR 2025 BAKEHOUSE X CITE INTERNATIONALE DES ARTS RESIDENCY
Portrait of Juan Luis Matos. Image by Michael Grant. Courtesy of the artist.
Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami and the Cité internationale des arts, Paris are pleased to announce the selection of Juan Luis Matos as the 2025 Laureate for the Bakehouse x Cité internationale des arts residency programme. Juan is the third Bakehouse artist selected through a competitive and juried process for a two-month residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris from May to June 2025. The partnership between Bakehouse and the Cité internationale des arts was forged in 2022 between the two artist-serving institutions to provide an exceptional professional and creative development opportunity to a Bakehouse artist. Four finalists were selected by a jury composed of Carol Damian (art historian and former director of the Frost Art Museum), Stephanie Seidel (Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami), and Marie Vickles (Senior Director of Education at Pérez Art Museum Miami). The final selection was made by the Cité internationale des arts based on the originality of the research proposal and the added value of residency in Paris, the artistic background and the synergies among artists who will then be in residence.
“Juan is an incredible artist and it will be great to see how this residency furthers his practice and contributes to the growth of Miami's art community via the experiences he brings back with him. The innovative 2-channel video he proposes to begin producing in Paris is a unique contribution to the black artists who sought refuge in Paris. We will be watching with great interest as Juan explores the city and completes his project with the artist of yesterday and today,” commented the jurors in a joint statement.
Since its foundation in 1965, the Cité internationale des arts has encouraged cross-cultural dialogue and provided a place where artists can engage with diverse audiences through residency programs ranging from two months to a year. Every year, over 1,000 artists from over one hundred different countries and representing a multitude of creative disciplines—visual arts, music and performing arts, exhibition curators, art historians, writers, and researchers—stay in one of the 325 live-in studios at Cité, whose campus is divided between the Marais and Montmartre neighborhoods in Paris.
Through its artist-in-residence programs and with the help of its many partners, the Cité internationale des arts provides artists of all disciplines the opportunity to live and work in Paris, advance their research-based and creative projects, and foster dialog and exchange with artists from around the world. The Cité allows artists to work in an environment conducive to creation and open to meetings with professionals from Paris' rich cultural milieu. Residents benefit from customized support from the Cité team and access to the depth and diversity of Paris's museums and other cultural resources and assets.
“The Bakehouse x Cité internationale des arts residency programme is the ideal platform for an enriching conversation between artists whose work is rooted in Miami's art scene, the Cité internationale des arts community and the dynamic cultural scene in Paris. As for Juan, he won us over with his strong background and works in the film and cinema field, research and community-based practices. Juan is much inspired by the lives and works of thinkers Glissant and Baldwin who had made Paris their refuge city. We are confident we can support him in finding echoes with contemporary issues at stake in the Paris ecosystem today and accompany his research in a very concrete way,” said Souraya Kessaria, Residency Programmes and Partnerships Manager at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris.
Still image of You Can Always Come Home, 2021. Courtesy of the artist.
Since its inception in 1986, the Bakehouse Art Complex has provided emerging and mid-career artists with the opportunity to explore and develop their artistic endeavors through affordable studios, creative and professional development opportunities, and access to fabrication spaces. Bakehouse enables its community of 100 artists to work, make, discover, learn, and share their practices and work with each other and the broader community.
Bakehouse now is positioned for its next stage of development: to renovate the former bakery building and add affordable housing and new cultural spaces to its 2.3-acre campus. In doing so, it will play a critical role in the collective efforts to build a strong and sustainable ecosystem in Miami in which artists and the arts can thrive. Bakehouse reiterates its aim to propel and sustain creativity, foster collaboration and community, and, ultimately, elevate Miami and its artists, locally, nationally, and globally, through its programmatic offerings and partnerships, such as the one with Cité internationale des arts.
The Bakehouse x Cité partnership continues to evolve, strengthening cultural connections between Miami and Paris. This collaboration is now further reinforced through engagement with the French Ministry of Culture's Villa Albertine, which supports artistic and cultural exchanges between France and the United States. As part of this initiative, staff exchanges and professional development opportunities have been integrated into the partnership. In March 2025, Bakehouse Assistant Director of Programs and Community Engagement Laura Novoa will participate in the Courants du Monde program, an esteemed professional exchange initiative organized by the French Ministry of Culture. Following the program, Novoa will be in residence at Cité internationale des arts for ten days to curate their monthly open studios event, learn about the organization, and interface with staff and artists in residence, fostering deeper engagement and connection between Bakehouse, Cité, and French cultural institutions.
“We believe Juan is at a pivotal moment in his artistic career, making this residency at Cité an ideal opportunity for him to further develop his practice. His ability to engage with diverse communities, coupled with his deep and sustained interest in the Caribbean region, makes him an ideal candidate for this opportunity. We believe this experience has the potential to be transformative for his practice, allowing him to engage with an international community of peers, explore historical and contemporary collections and cultural institutions, and meet important art professionals during his time in Paris,” said Laura Novoa, Assistant Director of Programs and Community Engagement at Bakehouse Art Complex.
Still image of Pork n’ Beans Blue, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Juan Luis Matos is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker born in Havana, Cuba and based in Miami, FL. He studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany and received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. He is a member of Third Horizon, a film collective that hosts an annual film festival in Miami, and he is a four-time Suncoast Regional Emmy Award Winner. He is a 2022 MacDowell Colony fellow and currently an artist in residence at the Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami, FL. Matos is the top prize recipient for the 2022 Knight Foundation Made in MIA Award at Miami Film Festival for his short film, 'You Can Always Come Home,' and is the 2024 Oolite Arts Cinematic Arts resident working on his debut feature film ‘Three Islands’.
“I approach video and film as a way to examine how histories, infrastructures, and narratives can be questioned, reshaped, and recontextualized. Paris and Miami, two cities deeply connected by the impact of artists, offer rich spaces to explore the ways systems of power dictate who has access, who is remembered, and who is erased. Through a mix of archival research and filmed material, I want to consider the city not just as a backdrop, but as an active structure—one that artists have historically navigated and resisted. I’m excited to use my time at Cité internationale des arts to experiment with these ideas and think about how these histories and contemporary realities can be reinterpreted. I’m deeply grateful to Bakehouse Art Complex for this amazing opportunity to expand my practice, relationships, and ways of seeing,” said Matos.
Support for this residency is made possible through proceeds raised at Bakehouse's annual fall fundraiser.