Please click on the link below to read the recent interview by Lisa Edge for Real Change:
Symmetry and Rhythm: Juan Alonso-Rodriguez' life has been a creative journey
From left, Juan Alonso-Rodriguez. Photo credit Kseniya Sovenko. “Pthalo Pearl,” 2019, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 48” x 48”
We are thrilled to announce a new addition to our 2020 cohort. The covers of our four 2020 titles will feature work by Cuban-born artist Juan Alonso-Rodríguez.
Four ink and graphite drawings from Juan’s 2018 Palm Desert series bring together our 2020 titles in a way that announces and advances our intention to create not just individually important and beautiful books but a collection of necessary alternatives that are in conversation with one another and that invite readers into that conversation and into a process of creating an emergent, aspirational culture of intimacy, accountability and radical imagination.
Learn more about our 2020 cohort at our website, https://the3rdthing.press.
A festive event celebrating the 2019 honorees of the Governor’s Arts & Heritage Awards will take place on November 19, 7-9 pm at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia, WA and you are invited.
Since 1966, these have been presented to individuals and organizations that have significantly contributed to the arts and cultural development of Washington State. Please join us as we recognize this year’s distinguished recipients: Anne Banks of Olympia, David Diaz of Richland, Juan Alonso-Rodríguez of Seattle, Juan Manuel Barco of Brier, Matt Cadman of Wenatchee, Michael Spafford of Seattle, the Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association of Olympia, and The 5th Avenue Theatre of Seattle. A dessert reception and no-host bar will precede the awards ceremony.
I am extremely grateful and honored to be among such distinguished past recipients of this prestigious award. Please join me at the award ceremony on November 19 at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia, WA
Please join us for the second exhibit installment of
Re:definition 2019 The Latinx Diaspora
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Paramount Theater
911 Pine St, Seattle, WA 98101
Free & Open to the Public
Gallery curated by Juan Alonso-Rodríguez
Featuring works by
Arturo Artorez, Tatiana Garmendia and Hugo Moro
Although the event is free, we encourage you to RSVP as a courtesy.
Doors and gallery open at 5:00 pm.
Reception with complimentary drinks and light bites from Chef Tarik Abdullah, plus music by J-Na$ty & SHESGUCCI
Re:definition was launched in 2016 with the goal of redefining historic cultural space. Rotating exhibits throughout the year showcase works from visual artists whose pieces highlight issues of race and social justice, both locally and globally. This year’s theme focuses on work created by artists from the Latinx Diaspora.
The upcoming exhibit will be on display from July 28, 2019 through January 2020.
Learn more about Re:definition
CURATORS’ STATEMENT: I dream of a borderless world where culture is shared rather than appropriated or labeled by a powerful few; where the concept of home can mean every corner of the world or one that resets nightly, depending on where the traveler comes to rest.
Home can mean a physical building, a birthplace, or something in between. For those of us who migrate, this definition is often blurred. While we cling to our identity, we also embrace and adapt to the challenges and opportunities we encounter. The artworks I have selected lean towards the symbolic, hoping each viewer comes away with a higher appreciation for the artist’s passion and fewer preconceptions about their ethnicity.
First, I am super honored to be among the very talented creatives that have been awarded a 2019 Artist Trust Fellowship. This couldn't have come at a better time. If you're not yet familiar with Artist Trust, I strongly encourage you to check it out and get involved with this amazing arts organization.
This is the closest I will ever get to winning an Emmy Award
Recently, an incredible team from KCTS 9 was honored with an Emmy® for Borders & Heritage: Los Artistas at the 2019 NATAS PNW Regional Emmy® Awards. The program – a special digital and broadcast presentation – featured the stories of four Latino artists living in the Pacific Northwest for whom art is not only a form of social expression but also a proclamation of heritage. I am thrilled to have been a part of this program.
4Culture Grant
With the support and generosity of 25 friends and patrons, I was able to once again stay in an amazing house in Palm Desert to recharge, be inspired and create for a month. I went with the intention of continuing and further developing Desert Drawings I created last year, this time with the specific goal of making paintings that would eventually become sculptures. While there I created 10 acrylic paintings on 30" x 22.5" Arches 300lb hot-pressed watercolor paper that you can see HERE. I am happy to announce that I will be receiving an Individual Artist Grant from 4Culture so a select few of those paintings will come to life in 3D. Stay tuned for a presentation of the paintings and sculptures towards the end of 2019.
I am happy to announce that I am now represented in the Bay Area Counties by SLATE Contemporary in Oakland, CA.
SLATE Contemporary - 473 25th Street, Oakland, CA 94612 - 510-652-4085 - info@slateart.net
My work will be featured at Art Palm Springs at the Palm Springs Convention Center, February 14-19, 2019 at Booth 113/114, Jorge Mendez Gallery benefiting the Friends of Palm Springs Animal Shelter.
I hope to see you there!
Gradient Flow: Teal, Pthalo, Indigo & Bronze, 2018, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 24” x 24” each panel
Please follow this LINK to listen to an interview from the Beyond The Studio Series (West coast Edition)
Photo: Marcus Donner
Please join me and the folks at the Paramount Theater for the first exhibit installment of Re:definition 2019 The Latinx Diaspora!
Sunday, January 20, 2019
(Martin Luther King Day weekend)
The Paramount Theatre
911 Pine Street
Seattle, WA 98101
Free & Open to the Public
Gallery curated by Juan Alonso-Rodríguez
Featuring works by
Monica Arche, Felicia Gonzalez and Fulgencio Lazo
Please RSVP for this Free event today!
Doors and gallery open at 6:00 pm.
Reception with drinks, light bites from Cafe Con Leche and music, including a live performance by Tres Leches!
Although the event is free, we encourage you to RSVP as a courtesy.
Re:definition was launched in 2016 with the goal of redefining historic cultural space. Rotating exhibits throughout the year showcase works from visual artists whose pieces highlight issues of race and social justice, both locally and globally. This year’s theme focuses on work created by artists from the Latinx Diaspora.
The upcoming exhibit will be on display from January 20th through July 2019.
Learn more about Re:definition
I look forward to seeing you there!
CURATORS’ STATEMENT: I dream of a borderless world where culture is shared rather than appropriated or labeled by a powerful few; where the concept of home can mean every corner of the world or one that resets nightly, depending on where the traveler comes to rest.
Home can mean a physical building, a birthplace, or something in between. For those of us who migrate, this definition is often blurred. While we cling to our identity, we also embrace and adapt to the challenges and opportunities we encounter. The artworks I have selected lean towards the abstract, hoping each viewer comes away with a higher appreciation for the artist’s passion and fewer preconceptions about their ethnicity.
I am very happy to announce that my work is now available at Jorge Mendez Gallery in Palm Springs, CA.
Jorge Mendez Gallery 756 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262 - (760) 656-7454
Please follow this LINK for the City Arts Magazine Style feature by Amanda Manitach.
Photo: Lauren Max
I am happy to announce I am included in CoCA's 2018 Members' Show, Creativity Persists, April 26 - May 26.
Center on Contemporary Art - 114 3rd Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
Pattern 3 - White, 2016, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 24" x 24"
Please click on the link below for the Yale Radio Interview:
Indigo Flow 2, 2017, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 48" x 48"
Where: Bellevue Arts Museum, 510 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA 98004, 425-519-0770 When: Thursday, March 15, 6:30 - 830 pm.
BAM & Pratt for a series of panel discussions introducing some of the many artists featured in Making our Mark. BAM’s Director Emeritus Michael Monroe and Pratt Fine Arts Center Executive Director Steve Galatro will moderate three discussions with emerging artists, teaching specialists, and some who’ve built a lasting legacy in the region. Artists on each panel will talk about their own careers and artistic inspiration, as well as how their work at Pratt has influenced their paths as artists.
I am honored to be in such distinguished company for this talk. Please join Marita Dingus, Cappy Thompson, Preston Singletary and me at Bellevue Arts Museum on Thursday, March 15! LINK
Tobacco Pattern 1 - 2017, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 38" x 48"
I had the honor of being interviewed by KCTS's Laila Kazmi for her Borders & Heritage series. Here is a link to both the written story with photographs and the video. It is also on Crosscut. KCTS LINK HERE
In celebration of Valentine's Day & artist Yadviga Dowmont Halsey's 90th birthday, Juan Alonso Studio will be showing a series of her paintings based on "Lovers", February 1-23, 2018.
Yadviga Dowmont Halsey’s compositions are dreamlike studies in human nature. They are impromptu plays where the leading characters vary in emotion from the very tragic to the overjoyed and we, as the audience, provide our own individual interpretation of the drama before us. These paintings are about emotion, human interaction, memory and moments in time. They are psychological narratives layered with tragedy, frivolity and everything else in between.
Open to the public on:
1st Thursday, February 1, 5-8pm
2nd Saturday, February 10, noon-5pm
& by appointment: 206-390-4882
306 S Washington St, Studio 104
Seattle, WA 98104
Love/Lust: a wall of Yadviga Dowmont Halsey's Lovers
I am pleased to have work from the Reservoir Series in a two person exhibit with Terrell Lozada at the City of Kent’s Centennial Center Gallery located at 400 W Gowe St, Kent, WA through February 26, 2018.
For more information: https://www.kentwa.gov/…/par…/arts/centennial-center-gallery
Please join me at the Microsoft Auditorium of the Seattle Public Library Downtown Branch for a talk and slide presentation about my recent trip(s) to Havana, Cuba.
Tatuaje, La Habana, Cuba, 2017
Join a special artist talk with Seattle-based Cuban artist Juan Alonso-Rodríguez. His journey begins in Havana, leaving his immediate family at age 9 and arriving in Miami in 1966. He came to Seattle via San Francisco in 1982 where he has lived since and creates studio and public works. Juan is an activist, arts advocate, Seattle Arts Commissioner and serves on the city’s Public Art Advisory Committee. He has also won numerous awards including a Mayor’s Arts Award, the DeJunius Hughes Award for Activism and most recently the Conductive Garboil Grant. He has shown extensively throughout the US and is in the collections of Microsoft, General Mills, The Tacoma Art Museum and the Portland Art Museum, among others.
His presentation will include influences in his art from his childhood in Cuba, reuniting with siblings and finding that there is much more to his homeland than old American cars, romanticized versions of a casual tourist and the Buena Vista Social Club. Unlike a travelogue, this is an artist’s personal view of a complex place that has been and remains a major source of inspiration in a career that spans over three decades.
http://www.spl.org/audiences/all-ages/all-ages-calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D125739063
I am very happy to be part of this expansive exhibit of present and past Pratt Fine Arts teaching artists, November 10, 2017 through April 8, 2018.
Tobacco Pattern 2 - 2017, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"
https://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/upcoming/making-our-mark
Making our Mark: Art by Pratt Teaching Artists is a commemorative exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Pratt Fine Arts Center. The exhibition features work from over 250 Pratt teaching artists throughout the organization’s influential history. Founded in 1976 to provide high-quality visual arts training in Seattle’s Central District—one of the city’s most economically and ethnically diverse neighborhoods—Pratt has been instrumental in shaping the arts landscape of the Pacific Northwest.
There is no application process for classes at Pratt. As a community based organization, the core of Pratt’s mission is the belief that art should be accessible to all. Offering low-cost and free classes in a variety of mediums including glass, sculpture, jewelry, wood, and printmaking, Pratt gives many students their first exposure to making art. Over a thousand artists have taught at Pratt since its creation, sharing their knowledge of these diverse media with thousands more students. Making our Mark celebrates the lasting legacy of these teachers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Many of the teaching artists represented in the exhibition will be familiar to Bellevue Arts Museum audiences. Notable Northwest artists including Preston Singletary, Tip Toland, Cappy Thompson, and Jana Brevick have all been included in group and solo exhibitions at BAM. Most recently, several artists to be included in Making our Mark were featured in BAM Biennial 2016: Metalmorphosis, including Maria Phillips and Nancy Wordon, respective recipients of the Award of Excellence and People’s Choice Awards.
