Glenda León was born in 1976 in La Habana, Cuba.
Lives and works in La Habana and Madrid. Following in the tradition of the lyrical minimalism of Félix González-Torres, Cuban-Spanish artist Glenda León (Havana, 1976; based in Madrid since 2011) symbolizes the renewal of Cuban contemporary art, becoming one of the most established and internationally renowned Latin American artists. She began her career in the late 1990s, becoming the first Cuban artist to work with sound art, while also developing a solid and sustained practice in video art. She holds a degree in Art History from the University of Havana (Cuba) and in New Media from the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (KHM) in Cologne (Germany). Her artistic practice is primarily installation-based, integrating a wide range of languages: photographic, pictorial, and digital, in dialogue with other disciplines such as music, literature, and dance. Her work explores, with both delicacy and conviction, deeply political or environmental issues, always articulated through a minimalist grammar. She combines scientific inquiry and empirical observation, rationality and spirituality, in an attempt to challenge our perceptions of the world. Her reflections, situated within what might be called a "sensitive conceptual" framework, propose a shift in our understanding of reality and time, they speak of sensory quests and mystical visions, in which the self has been fully dissolved. Glenda León represented Cuba at the 55th Venice Biennale, and has also participated in the Dakar Biennale, the Cairo Biennale, and others. She has received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Pilar Juncosa & Sotheby’s Award for Artistic Creation award, and most recently, the CIFO Award for Mid-Career Artists. Her work is held in major public collections such as the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, USA), and the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Montreal, Canada).