Art & Art History
Juan SУЁnchez
Gallery 400 Lecture Room
400 South Peoria Street
Juan SУЁnchez (born 1954), in his collage-like paintings that incorporate newspaper clippings, vernacular objects, and religious iconography, seeks to reassemble the fragmented pieces of Puerto Rican cultural identity. The American born painter of Black and Puerto Rican descent, reflects a convergence of political radicalism and esthetic innovation in his work. He is resistant to the neocolonial destruction of Puerto Rican culture on the island and the disempowering marginalization of Puerto Ricans in the States. That is not to say that he should be perceived as a one-dimensional political artist. Never about only one level of political experience, his subject matter is often psychological inflected, refracted through religious and mythical symbolisim, and represented ambivalently. There is an essential polyvocality to his work.
SУЁnchez earned a BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art and an MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University.