Bio
Juan Luis Matos (b. Havana, Cuba) is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker 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.
Juan’s films have been selected at numerous festivals, including DOC NYC, BlackStar Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, and Miami Film Festival, and he is a four time Suncoast Regional Emmy Award winner. He was 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,’ which is in the collection of Indiana University Black Film Center & Archive and the MacDowell Library.
His video, photography, and installations have been exhibited at David Castillo Gallery, Tunnel Projects, The Everson Museum of Art, Kestner Gesellschaft, Walter McBean Gallery, and Express Newark.
Juan is also the technical director and producer of Masisi Radio, an online radio centering Black, Queer, and Caribbean voices in Miami.
He is a 2026 SFFILM Rainin Grant recipient, a 2025 Cité Internationale des Artes resident in Paris, France, and a 2022 MacDowell Colony fellow. He is currently an artist in residence at the Bakehouse Art Complex, and a Cinematic Arts resident at Oolite Arts, where he is developing his debut feature film, Three Islands.