ABOUT Juan rodriguez - A classical contemporary artist

Artistic Statement:

Juan Rodriguez, born in San Antonio, Texas, has been interested in art since early childhood. He passionately responds to his world through sculpture, drawing, and painting. Juan's lifelong works reflect his family heritage and the life he has lived and is experiencing.

A series of Juan’s art searches for the soul of the Indigenous American identity with skulls, shape-shifting shamans, and crows. He also draws and paints animals and objects from the natural world in this series.

Much of Juan’s work portrays his real-life experiences, such as the "Desperation of Solitude" wire pieces, which powerfully reflect his work with severely challenged individuals.

To hone his technical skills, he draws the human figure as a daily habit. These pastel, charcoal, and pencil drawings are emotional, hauntingly beautiful, and riveting objects of art to collect.

They have a deep, dark resonance that defines the unique spirit of the pieces. Each work is a remarkable object to collect and treasure as an heirloom.

His sculptures, which often have a more whimsical quality than his paintings, consist of found objects, carved wood, fired clay, etc. He currently collaborates with Ray Hammar to create large, elegant sculptures from scrap metal, stone, glass globes, and beads.

His art production is uniquely his own, wherever his inspiration comes from. Each piece is one of a kind.

Resume/CV:

 After serving in the United States Air Force from 1975 to 1979, Juan took art and welding classes at Olympic College from 1979 to 1990, receiving an AA and a certificate in welding.

He received a BFA from the University of Washington in 1994, majoring in sculpture and minoring in painting and drawing.

His work is diverse, including many drawing, painting, and sculpture forms. He sculpts with traditional media but often uses any materials possible. He creates solid wood carvings, small abstract figure sculptures with fired clay, and large sculptures from natural, found objects.

Juan’s "Recurring Dream" public performance sculptures included over seventeen life-size paper people, which he constructed using an original technique he developed. These performance pieces took approximately 40 minutes to create in front of an audience while another person read out of Grey’s Anatomy on the skin. Three pieces are currently in collections; another is at Arizona State University. The remainder have been destroyed.

He taught many individual and group drawing classes and hosted a life drawing group from 2009 to 2015 in his previous studio, in the Amy Burnett Building in downtown Bremerton.

 From 1988 to 1990, he hosted life drawing sessions, seminars, lectures, workshops, and critique groups in his first studio on 1st Avenue, downtown Bremerton. His studio was the only art facility for these services in Bremerton at the time.

Juan has shown his work in numerous art exhibits, performance pieces, and installations in the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, and California. He has received multiple awards and recognition:

·         2025 Collective Visions Gallery, Bremerton, WA, an annual juried competition opened to Oregon and WA residents – awarded Best of Kitsap with Ray Hammar for collaboration on their sculpture, Asunder II, constructed of recycled and found materials;

·         2024 Collective Visions Gallery annual juried WA state competition – juried into the show.

·         2024 Q4 Gallery Representation, Bremerton

·         2023 Collective Visions Gallery annual juried WA state competition – awarded 3rd Place in 3D and the Best of Kitsap;

·         2022 Collective Visions Gallery annual juried WA state competition – awarded Best of Show in 3D;

·         2021 Collective Visions Gallery annual juried WA state competition - Awarded 1st place in 3D;

·         2017 Art Installation on Immigration in the United States, a six-week public exhibition held in Modesto, California, titled “We Are Not the Last.” He collaborated with Artists Jim Abuan and Laura Stokes;

·         2014 Collective Visions Gallery annual juried WA state competition - Awarded 1st place in 2D;

·         2013 Collective Visions Gallery annual juried WA state competition - Awarded Best of Show in 3D;

·         1999 Paper Performance Sculptures (see above) exhibited at the Washington Performance Arts Center, Olympia, WA;

·         1995 Paper Performance Sculptures (see above) exhibited at the Arizona State University West, Phoenix, Arizona;

·         1994 Awarded the Artists Trust Fellowship, Seattle, $5000 – one of eight that received the award that year;

·         1994-2018 Representation by the Amy Burnett Gallery, Bremerton;

·         1980 Awarded the Olympic College Community Scholarship.

From 2006 to 2018, he taught in the Central Kitsap School District in Bremerton, WA, where he taught various subjects, including life skills, math, and reading, to children with special needs in grades kindergarten through six.

He now focuses on his studio artwork practice and has retired chiefly from other activities. However, he still mentors high school students once a month with colleague Sherri Gamble (see references below) at the Collective Visions Gallery in Bremerton.

Juan resides in Bremerton, WA, and creates art at his studio at 532 5th Street.