Portrait of Juan Sanchez by Carla Velazco
Join us for an artist talk, as influential Latino artist Juan Sánchez sits down to discuss his life and art with Eve-Laure Moros Ortega, Executive Producer of the ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century acclaimed television series.
ABOUT JUAN SANCHEZ:
Juan Sánchez (b. 1954) is an influential American artist and one of the most important Nuyorican cultural figures to emerge in the second half of the 20th century. Born to migrant working-class Puerto Rican parents in Brooklyn, New York, Sánchez earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Cooper Union School of Art in 1977, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University in 1980. A politically committed artist, he was inspired early on by the political teachings of the Young Lords and by the El Taller Boricua art collective. Sánchez grew to be part of a generation of artists that include such figures as Coco Fusco, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Pepón Osorio and Papo Colo, who in the 1980s and '90s explored questions of ethnic, racial, and national identity in their work, be it through painting, video, performance or installation. He became known for producing brightly hued mixed-media canvases that addressed issues of Puerto Rican life in the United States and on the island. Of his work, critic Lucy Lippard once wrote, "it teaches us new ways of seeing what surrounds us." He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
Sánchez’s mixed-media paintings, prints, photographs and video installations have been exhibited throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Egypt. His major solo exhibitions include TRIPTYCH/TRIPTICO: RETRATOS/PORTRAITS, Zoellner Arts Center Main Gallery, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 2009; Juan Sánchez: RicanStructions: Paintings of the 90’s, MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, 1999; 1898: Rican/Struction, Multilayered Impressions, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, 1998; Juan Sánchez: Printed Convictions/Convicciones Grabadas, Jersey City Museum, NJ, 1998; and Juan Sánchez: Rican/Structed Convictions at EXIT ART, New York, 1998. Sánchez has taken part in major groundbreaking group exhibitions such as Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, 2014; I, You, We: Activism in the 1980s, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2013; This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, 2012; Multiplicity, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, 2011; On Being Human, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2003; Think Print: Books to Billboards, 1980-95, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1996; American Voices: Latino Photographers in the United States, FotoFest, Houston, 1994, and the Smithsonian Institution, 1997; and Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992, traveling to Estación Plaza de Armas, Sevilla, Spain, 1992; Musee National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 1992; Hôtel des Arts, Paris, France, 1992-1993; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, 1993.
Works by Juan Sánchez are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and El Museo del Barrio, all in New York; El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico; and El Centro Wilfredo Lam in Havana, Cuba, among others.
Sánchez is a Professor of Art at Hunter College, City University of New York.
ABOUT EVE-LAURE MOROS ORTEGA:
Eve-Laure Moros Ortega, Executive Producer of the ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century television series, has worked in film and television for over 15 years on documentaries and independent feature films. Prior to her work onArt in the Twenty-First Century she worked on projects with Oscar-winning directors Deborah Dickson and Bill Fertik, MacArthur Fellow Yvonne Rainer, Amir Naderi, and Curious Pictures, among others. Moros Ortega received a B.A. in Art History and Political Science from Barnard College, where she was awarded honors for her work on postmodern art, and an M.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University. She has been a panelist for NYSCA and the NEH, and is also the Producer/Director of Made in Thailand, distributed by Women Make Movies. Made in Thailand, whose funders include the Soros Foundation and Paul Robeson fund, earned a nomination of best documentary short from the International Documentary Association.
Venue Information:
The Stoop at BRIC House is a public cultural gathering space featuring free, drop-in programming, and offering a place to sit, observe, and participate in multi-disciplinary work.
Beginning Nov. 1, 2022, attendees of any BRIC House programming will no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter the building. Masks are encouraged but not required in all BRIC operated spaces. If you have questions regarding this protocol, please email Safety@bricartsmedia.org