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Juan R. Fuentes visited Shoals, AL, for the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art's reception/exhibition, Borderline: Chicano Voices Speak. His powerful artwork spoke to a culture emboldened with strength, determination, and beauty. His art talk gave us a glimpse into his craft and the subjects of images created. When he recounted the beauty of Watsonville Brilliante, where a community used his woodcut images to create mosaic murals on a building, Fuentes gave us hope, showing what is possible through community projects.
We welcome Juan Fuentes. - Gate open! - Victorine
Linocut/woodcut
Artist Inspiration
Juan has dedicated his art as a cultural activist to supporting and being part of a global movement for social change. His silkscreen posters and relief prints have addressed many issues as they relate to communities of color, social justice, racism, and international struggles for liberation.
"I am a Chicano Artist living in San Francisco, California, a long time cultural worker, art teacher and social activist/poster maker and print maker. My goal has always been to portray our people in a very positive, beautiful and dignified manner in contrast to the continual negative portrayal of us in the media." Juan R. Fuentes
Silkscreen
Mixed Media
Posters
Artist Bio
Juan R. Fuentes is a graduate of San Francisco State University. He has taught at the Mission Campus/City College SF, the California College of the Arts, Oakland CA and was visiting faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute’s print department. Juan was also director of Mission Grafica at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.
Inspired by the Chicano Movement and mentors Rupert Garcia and Malaquias Montoya,
Juan’s studio Pajaro Editions is part of Consejo Grafico Nacional, a collective of Chicano/Latino print studios. His prints and posters reside in various institutions and museums including, the Mexican Museum of San Francisco, the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum, the Library of Congress, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles and CEMA, the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, University of Santa Barbara. CEMA has also set up a personal archive for his works. Juan’s art has been exhibited locally, nationally and internationally.
Awards: 2019 Harriet Barlow Award, Blue Mountain Center
2010 Recipient of Activist Award, Southern Graphics Council International
2009 Art is a Hammer Award, Center for the Study of Political Graphics
2005 Recipient of an Honorary Membership to the California Society of Printmakers
Contact: Juan R. Fuentes