Juan Sanchez (artist)

For other people named Juan Sánchez, see Juan Sánchez (disambiguation).

Juan Sánchez
Born	July 1954 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Other names	Juan Sanchez
Alma mater	Cooper Union, Rutgers University
Occupation(s)	artist, educator

Juan Sánchez, also Juan Sanchez (born July 1954) is an American artist and educator. He is an important Nuyorican cultural figure to emerge in the second half of the 20th century.[1] His works include photography, paintings and mixed media works.[2]

Biography

Juan Sánchez was born in July 1954 in Brooklyn, New York.[3] His parents are from Puerto Rico.[4] Juan Sánchez earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Cooper Union in New York in 1977 and his Master of Fine Arts at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts in 1980.[5]

He is part of a generation of artists—such as Coco Fusco, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Pepón Osorio and Papo Colo—who in the 1980s to 1990s explored questions of ethnic, racial and national identity in their work, be it through painting, video, performance or installation. Sánchez specifically became known for producing brightly hued mixed media canvases that addressed issues of Puerto Rican life in the U.S. and on the island. Of his work, critic Lucy Lippard once wrote: "it teaches us new ways of seeing what surrounds us."[6]

Sanchez combines painting and photography with other media clippings and found objects to confront America's political policies and social practices concerning his parents' homeland of Puerto Rico. Sanchez often specifically addresses Puerto Rico's battle for independence and the numerous obstacles facing disadvantaged Puerto Ricans in America.[7]

Sánchez is a professor of painting, photography and combined media at Hunter College in New York City.[8]

His pieces are held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art,[9] the Metropolitan Museum of Art[10] and the Whitney Museum of American Art,[11] among others.

Public Art Commissions

• "Reaching Out For Each Other," 2006, a series of faceted glass windows and wind screens at the 176th Street Stop of the 4 train, in The Bronx, for New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority[12]
• "Our Transcendence is Our Reign," 2009, a series of two murals and more than a dozen friezes for the James Monroe Educational Campus in the Bronx [13]
• "Prevalence: Sacred Traces," 2019, a 12' x 22' mural created for the Duncan Student Center at the University of Notre Dame[14]

Honors and awards

• John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, 1988[15]
• Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship, 1995[16][4]
• New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, 2003[17]
• Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2001 and 2007[18]

Selected solo exhibitions

• Juan Sánchez: Rican/Structed Convictions, Exit Art, New York, NY, 1989[19]
• Juan Sánchez: Printed Convictions/Convicciones Grabadas, Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ, 1998[20]
• 1898: Rican/Struction, Multilayered Impressions, BronxMuseum of Art, Bronx, NY, 1998[21]
• Juan Sánchez: Rican/Structions: Paintings of the 90’s, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY, 1999[22]
• Juan Sánchez: Paintings, Prints, Poetry, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL, 2001
• Rican/Structions: A Selection of Works by Juan Sánchez, Bernstein Gallery, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 2003[23]
• The Masters Invitational: Juan Sánchez, Hewitt Gallery of Art, Marymount Manhattan College, New York, NY, 2006[24]
• TRIPTYCH/TRIPTICO: RETRATOS/PORTRAITS, Zoellner Arts Center Main Gallery, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 2009[25]
• Juan Sánchez: Unknown Boricuas + Prisoner: Abu Ghraib, at Lorenzo Homar Gallery, Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia, PA, 2010[26]
• Juan Sánchez, ¿What’s The Meaning of This?, BRIC House Gallery, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, New York, NY,[27] 2015

References

1. 'Hyperallergic Arlene Dávila, "Juan Sánchez's Nuyorican State of Mind," October 23, 2022.
2. Harper, Glenn. Interventions and Provocations: Conversations on Art, Culture, and Resistance. SUNY Press, 1998.
3. "Cries & Pain". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2021-07-17.
4. "Juan Sánchez". Joan Mitchell Foundation. Retrieved 2021-07-17.
5. "Juan Sánchez". Department of Art and Art History. 2018-01-16. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
6. Lippard, Lucy (June 8, 1982). "A Small Slice of Whose Pie?". Village Voice. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
7. "Island Press Juan Sanchez". www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
8. "Juan Sanchez at Hunter College". Hunter College. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
9. "Juan Sanchez at MoMA". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
10. "Juan Sanchez at the Met". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
11. "Juan Sanchez at the Whitney". Whitney Museum. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
12. MTA Arts & Design online commissions database
13. Hutchinson Modern Juan Sánchez Viewing Room
14. University Communications, Notre Dame
15. "262 Chosen for Guggenheim Awards", New York Times, 17 April 1988.
16. Joan Mitchell Foundation: "Juan Sanchez named fellow in the Painters & Sculptors" Program, 1995
17. New York Foundation for the Arts, 2003 Fellowship announcement Archived 2006-05-28 at the Wayback Machine for Juan Sanchez
18. Pollock-Krasner Foundation: Juan Sanchez page Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
19. Haith Trust Digital Library, Juan Sanchez: Rican/Structed Convictions, at Exit Art, 1989
20. International Center for the Arts of the Americas. Documents related to Juan Sanchez exhibition, Printed Convictions/Convicciones Grabadas at the Jersey City Museum in 1998.
21. PR Dream: Juan Sanchez biography
22. PS1 Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1), Juan Sánchez: RICANSTRUCTIONS, December 1999
23. Zimmerman, Marc. Defending Their Own in the Cold: The Cultural Turns of U.S. Puerto Ricans, 2011.
24. Hewitt Gallery of Art, Juan Sanchez: The Master's Invitational Archived 2010-05-28 at the Wayback Machine, April 2006.
25. Leigh University, Calendar of Events, LU Art Galleries: Juan Sanchez: New Media Video Installation: Three Portraits Archived 2014-02-03 at the Wayback Machine, 4 March 2009
26. Repeating Islands, "Juan Sanchez at the Lorenzo Homar Gallery in Philadelphia," Archived 2024-06-03 at the Wayback Machine 24 February 2010
27. "Juan Sánchez, "¿What's The Meaning of This?" | Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños". centropr.hunter.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-27.^[permanent dead link‍]