Juan Henriquez
Artist Bio: Juan Henriquez is a Venezuelan-American visual artist based in Miami, FL. He began his art studies in 1995 at the Julio Árraga Art School and later at the Neptalí Rincón Superior Art Academy in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Henriquez has a diverse range of studies in graphic arts experimentation, art restoration, photography, cultural promotion, acting, and art direction for film. He was a co-founding member of La Tintota Art Collective, where he developed public art projects, art labs, and group exhibitions with the support and mentorship of art teachers José Ramón Sánchez and Víctor Fuenmayor. Henriquez's work has been showcased in national and international exhibitions in various countries, including Belgium, Romania, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, the Dutch Caribbean, and the United States. In 2002, he received the "Young Artist" award at the 27th National Art Salon of Aragua, Maracay, Venezuela. He is a resident artist at Laundromat Art Space in Miami, where he has been living and working since 2006.
Artist Stament: Juan Henriquez is a painter not looking to derive a rational or obvious discourse from the universe that he creates in his work; this is generated from sensibility and intuition. The sequence of actions in the work’s execution is a string that holds itself together. Spots and strokes are shaped and coupled, creating a gestural and visceral narrative of his daily life and his immediate pleasure. Color adds sound and creates graphical situations in which he immerses himself, expecting more of a narrative than aesthetic results.
Henriquez's pictorial work originates from that psycho-sensitive duplicity that allows viewers to look without rules and perceive carefully at the same time. This alternation of the spontaneous and the deliberate allows things to happen, lets images arise, and then ties ends or establishes connections, either in the visual space or in the realm of ideas. It is all a matter of accepting the undertaking of seeing in its double condition of being a playful event but also a cognitive vehicle.
Large-scale format excites Henriquez greatly, pushing him to jump outside his comfort zone. It lets him discover new ways to communicate from the image being built. Having worked with many different types of material on canvas and paper, from acrylic, crayon, and graphite to spray paint, he continues to push his pictorial adventures to other realms, collaborating with other artists while experimenting with bringing his abstract forms to the digital and physical world, keeping loyal to shapes and silhouettes he has created with his visceral approach to painting.
Solo Exhibitions: 2021: VERSION DEL CODO, Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, FL
MAPA HISTÉRICO, Laundromat Art Space, Miami, FL
2017: GOZO SOLO, D’Museo Gallery, Los Galpones Art Center, Caracas, Venezuela 2016: GOZO SOLO, Contemporary Art Museum of Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela OSTRISH PRETENSE, Atelier 3, Hollywood, FL
2013: WEIRD WINDOWS, Triphope Studio Gallery, Miami, FL
2012: BORDERS OF MY NOSE, District Factory. Miami, FL
2005: LATEST WORKS, Mombo Gallery, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2023: y tú, ¿de dónde eres? The City of Miami, Miami Riverside Center, Miami, FL Visceral Territory, Tomas Redrado Art Summer Residency Program, Miami, FL
Revolt of Guts, MIFA Gallery, Miami, FL
2022: Composites & Constellations, The Frank Art Gallery, Pembroke Pines, FL
2021: Aleatorios, New Perspectives of Venezuelan Contemporary Art, Curated by Lourdes Peñaranda & Maria Teresa Govea-Meoz, vortic.art (online)
2020: Leaks and Matches, Bag Online Art Gallery, Houston, TX
2019: For Now: Contemporary Venezuelan Art of the Miami Diaspora, Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, FL
Panorama Actual, Alternative Art Space Maczul-Kristoff, Maracaibo, Venezuela Rocking Chair Sessions 76-100 Exhibition, Swampspace Gallery, Miami, FL Entre Pasillos, Bag Art Gallery, Houston, TX
2018: Interspace, Laundromat Art Space. Miami, FL
Laundromat 2.0, Laundromat Art Space. Miami, FL 2017: Arte 17, Viloria Blanco Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Miami New Media Festival, Miami, FL
72 Artistas Plásticos por los Periodistas Venezolanos, Miami Biennale Cultural Foundation, Miami, FL
Group Show, D’Museo Gallery, Los Galpones Art Center, Caracas, Venezuela
2015: XI Young Artists Art Salon, Contemporary Art Museum of Zulia (MACZUL), Maracaibo, Venezuela
Liquid Bridge, The Chill Concept Art Space. Miami, FL
Group Show, Miami Fashion Weekend. The Chill Concept Art Space. Miami, FL
2014: Art Auction, Annual Charity Gala, VAEA. David Rubenstein Atrium de Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Social: @juanjhenriquez