George Rodez was born in Manhattan, New York on March 20, 1957. Soon after, because of a family illness, he was sent to Havana, Cuba to live with his grandparents and was reunited with his parents in 1960. And although he enjoys traveling around the world, he now calls Miami, Florida his home.
Although he began his career as a mechanical engineer, art has been his passion since the very early age of thirteen. He now dedicates himself solely to painting. He has displayed much of his work throughout various museums and galleries nationally and internationally: Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, just to name a few. He has also appeared in several newspapers, television shows and news segments, as well as gracing the international inaugural cover of Arts New View magazine, appearing in Selecta Magazine, and more recently appearing in Casa Life Magazine in the Dominican Republic. In 2005 the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs awarded Rodez an Artist Enhancement grant to promote his art internationally. As a result, that year Rodez exhibited at the Biennale Internazionale dell' Arte Contemporanea held in Florence, Italy, the world's largest exhibition of contemporary artists. He has subsequently exhibited at: Pagès Espai d'Art Gallery in Barcelona, Spain; GO Gallery in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Barradas Cultural Center in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain; La Casa Elizalde in Barcelona, Spain; Galeria Paqui Delgado and the Antigua Capella in Sant Sadurni d'Anoia, Spain. Rodez is primarily represented by numerous galleries nationally and internationally year-round.
Rodez is a self-taught artist whose strength is his diversity, allowing himself the freedom to create multiple bodies of work, each vastly different from the other. In his experiences with his mother's mental illness, including multiple personalities, Rodez observed that each personality had a different strength and function, each serving a unique purpose. Rodez has taken that lesson and incorporated it into his art, with each body of work providing him different experiences and allowing all his personalities to show through. Rodez believes that an artist should explore all of the infinite possibilities and use their artistic creativity to the maximum potential, never giving in to stagnation. He believes that as human beings, we are all very complex in our own unique way and we should share with others our many characters and emotions. He states that to live life is to feel all of these emotions and we should use them as tools to help us live a fuller, richer and more complete life. Rodez lives through his paintings in this very same fashion.
Rodez enjoys and believes in participating to help the community by making art contributions to raise money for charitable organizations. On November 21, 2006, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen recognized Rodez and stated "The dedication shown to the arts, and your involvement in fund raising for charitable organizations through your generous art contributions is truly commendable."
Bruce C. Kaplan, former Miami-Dade County Commissioner, awarded Rodez with a certificate of appreciation for his participation with and coordination of an Exhibition exploring the Afro-Cuban culture entitled "De Africa A Cuba, Raices De Un Pueblo" and "Cuba Es Así," and for his many contributions to the community.
Some of the organizations he has contributed to recently include Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, March of Dimes, League Against Cancer, Amigos for Kids, Women's Emergency Network, Association for Retarded Citizens, and the list goes on.
Rodez has been a member of the South Florida Art Center, the Florida Museum of Hispanic and Latin American Art, and more recently, a founding member of The Cuban American Artists Society.
