Untitled

Bedia employs bold, flat shapes and unmodulated color to distinguish the lion from the deer, whose forms are reduced to schematic silhouettes. The use of oilstick allows for dense, tactile lines, while synthetic polymer paint provides matte, even fields. The contrast between the lion’s vivid hue and the deer’s muted tones enhances visual tension, emphasizing the predator’s presence within an otherwise calm composition.

The work entered The Museum of Modern Art’s collection shortly after its creation, acquired as part of a growing interest in contemporary Latin American artists. Bedia’s use of amate paper, historically used in pre-Columbian codices, connects the piece to indigenous material traditions, positioning it within a lineage of cultural continuity rather than purely modernist innovation.

Bedia’s practice draws from Afro-Cuban religious iconography, Cuban folk traditions, and indigenous symbolism. This work reflects his broader exploration of animal figures as metaphors for spiritual forces and ancestral memory. The inclusion of 'Reina de la Sabana' situates the scene within a mythic landscape, where natural predators and prey carry deeper cosmological significance beyond literal representation.

The piece exemplifies Bedia’s role in expanding the vocabulary of contemporary Latin American art through hybrid visual languages. By merging indigenous materials with modern media and symbolic narratives, he challenges Western distinctions between fine art and ethnographic expression. His influence persists in how contemporary artists engage with cultural memory and non-European cosmologies.