Yasser Musa

Yasser Musa (born 17 July 1970) is a Belizean visual artist, teacher, poet and publisher.

Background

The son of former Belizean Prime Minister Said Musa, Yasser Musa was born in Belize City. He was educated in Belize City at St. John's College Junior College. After he graduated in 1989, he debuted with a collection called poems. In 1992, along with Belizean musician and now owner of Belize's most successful record company Stonetree Records, Ivan Duran, Musa presented Minus 8. It featured multimedia pieces and was the first of its kind in Belize. He went on to study at a university in New Orleans. There in 1995 he presented his first solo visual art exhibit, Coming Out, with 50 paintings.

In 1995, Yasser Musa developed the Image Factory Art Foundation. The Art Foundation features a gallery which hosts exhibits from local, regional and international artists. The Factory, as most people call it, is located on 91 North Front Street in Belize City, and has functioned as a space for workshops, classes, residencies and exhibits.

landings

The Minus series would later go counting down to a major international exhibit ZERO, new Belizean art which opened in the Olimpo in Mérida Yucatán, to a large crowd and would eventually garner 17,000 visitors. landings was a series of exhibits, ten in all, which featured artists from the Caribbean and Central America. The exhibits mostly featured installation and photography. Each exhibit was launched with a forum for artists and audience to discuss the current situation of contemporary art in the region. Yasser Musa along with landings curator Joan Duran, editors Tristan Donald and Marisol Rodriguez at the close of the last exhibit began the vigorous work of the CONTAINER Collection, the first of a series of 10 manifested as a 400-page book. On September 6, 2013, along with Joan Duran and Kency Cornejo, Musa launched the CONTAINER Collection 001. The last landings presentation was in 2010.

Exhibitions

Musa has participated in several exhibitions both individually and collectively. He has exhibited in Belize, Cuba, México, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Portugal, Spain, the Dominican Republic and the United States. Belize @ 31 in Iowa, Bing Davis Memorial Gallery, Iowa, US, 2012 el Fleco+Vixens, Bitches and Whores, Image Factory Art Foundation, Belize City, Belize, 2011 landings 10, mi-kunuku-farm, Benque Viejo del Carmen, Belize, 2009 YM@20 yrs, Image Factory, Belize City, Belize, 2009 landings 9, Image Factory Art Foundation, Belize City, Belize, 2008 landings 8, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 2008 landings 7, Casa de las Americas/Galería Hayddée Santamaría, La Habana, Cuba, 2007 landings 6, Casa de las Americas/Galería Latinoamericana, La Habana, Cuba, 2007 landings 5, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington D.C., U.S.A., 2007 landings 4, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, San José, Costa Rica, 2007 landings 3, Centro León, Santiago de los Caballeros, la República Dominicana, 2006 landings 2, Centro de Arte Visuales, Mérida, Yucatán, México, 2006 landings 1, Conkal Arte Contemporáneo, Conkal, Yucatán, México, 2004 (3) North Front Street Project, 9th Havana Biennial, La Habana, Cuba, 2006 Zero, New Belizean Art, Mérida, Yucatán, México, 2000 Minus 5, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, 1995 Coming Out, Image Factory Art Foundation, Belize City, Belize, 1995 Minus 8, Bliss Institute, Belize City, Belize, August, 1992

Poetry

Yasser Musa has published works of poetry: How to Receive a Gift, 2011 Limited Anxiety, 2010 Loose Electricity, 2009 The Miami Poem, 2000 The Belize City Poem, 1996 Poems, 1989