Bettina Caro b. 1955

Painter Bettina Caro was born to a Sephardi family in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1955. She is a direct descendant of Rabbi Yosef Caro (1488-1575), author of the Shulchan Aruch , and cites her ancestry, her upbringing in North Africa, and her family’s Sephardi traditions as the key themes in her paintings. In 1973 Caro moved to Spain to study art and architecture at the University of Madrid, then settled in London in 1981. Caro primarily paints landscapes of the Mediterranean and the Holy Land, but has also received major portrait commissions. In 1992 she was invited to paint a portrait of Juan Carlos I, then King of Spain, as part of the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the country’s expulsion of their Jewish population. She exhibited with Ben Uri Gallery's Open exhibitions in 1985-1987, 1991, 1998 (Open Exhibition of Works by Contemporary Female Jewish Artists), and in 1999; as well as in the International Jewish Artist of the Year Award (IJAYA) in 2004 and 2006; she was runner-up in 2012. She lives and works in London.