Jose Lerma was born in Spain and grew up in Puerto Rico. He earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin Madison and BA from Tulane University, and attended the CORE Residency Program, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, ME. He lives and works in Chicago and San Juan, Puerto Rico. His work has been in solo exhibitions at the Kemper Museum of Art in Kansas City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de San Juan, Puerto Rico, among others; as well as in group exhibitions at the Milwaukee Art Museum, WI; Institute Valecia d’art Modern, Spain; Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico; Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain; DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; and Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX, and others. His work has been written about extensively in the press, including in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Artforum.