But he's not hurting financially. He lives from sales of his work -- his shows in Europe have been sellouts -- and the residencies pay for housing and living stipends.

''I put out very little, but what I put out is sold,'' Cordova said. ``I don't have a desire to get rich or die trying.

``It's more important for me to create a space for people to consider or reconsider their perspectives or add new perspectives to what they consider art.''

He has been represented since 2006 by Germany's Arndt & Partner (Berlin/Zurich), which is bringing his project to Art Kabinett.

''It's important for me to work with them, but from a distance so that there isn't any kind of direct influence on how my work evolves,'' Cordova said. ``I don't want to be too close to the kitchen.''

Still, earlier this year, he exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, a survey of ''where American art stands today,'' the sort of show that raises an artist's profile and the price his art commands. Cordova's work, The House That Frank Lloyd Wright Built 4 Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, a maze of wooden beams based on the footprint of the house where Panthers Hampton and Clark were killed in a 1969 police raid, drew widely critical commentary.

The installation at Basel will surely bring him attention as well.

A graduate of Miami Central High, Cordova set out to pursue a career in medicine or psychology when he enrolled at MDC's Medical Center campus, but after two years he dropped out.

He re-enrolled at the North Campus to pursue a writing and visual-arts career and then transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994.

After completing a bachelor's degree in fine arts, Cordova won admission to Yale and graduated with a master's in fine arts in 2004.

In Miami, Cordova jump-started his career by exhibiting in the Design District's Moore Space and the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami with the 2003 solo show No More Lonely Nights in which he used drum sets, speakers and other found objects to fuse the urban culture of inner-city Miami with the ancient Inca spirituality of his native country.

PERU'S INFLUENCE

He has a strong attachment to his Peruvian roots and uses Quechua or Spanish words and references Peruvian and Latin American history in many of works.

''We moved out of Peru, but Peru didn't move out of us when we went to Miami in 1977,'' Cordova said.

None of his brothers or sisters pursued a career in art, but they all knew how to draw and paint, following in the footsteps of their grandfather, Jesús Córdova Alay, a portrait artist and muralist in Peru.

''William loved to draw so much that our mother had to wash the walls every day, and his sisters had to hide their school projects because William didn't spare anything he found at home from becoming a canvas,'' said his sister Estela.

His retired parents live in Pembroke Pines, and when he's home, Cordova says, you can find him at the movies on Main Street in Miami Lakes, hanging out with old friends.

Does he still consider himself a Miami artist?

''I still vote, and I still have my whole family there,'' Cordova said. ``I'm not the prodigal son.''

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