Governor's Arts & Heritage Awards Celebration

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.

BUY TICKETS

Screen+Shot+2019-09-30+at+9.42.43+PM.jpg

Re:definition 2019 - Part 2

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.

redef.jpg

Good News!

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.

IMG_0253.JPG

Re:definition 2019 - Part 1

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.

ReDefintion_Poster_11x17_Latinx Diaspora.jpg

Bellevue Arts Museum - Making Our Mark - Legacy Artists Discussion

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"

Tobacco Pattern 1 - 2017, acrylic on unprimed canvas, 38" x 48"

Love/Lust: Yadviga Dowmont Halsey at 90!

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

Love/Lust: a wall of Yadviga Dowmont Halsey's Lovers

Havana to Seattle: Artist Talk - December 1, 2017, 6:30 - 8 pm

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

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

Bellevue Arts Museum - Making Our Mark: Art by Pratt Teaching Artists

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"

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.

Center on Contemporary Art - Legacy Exhibit

I am honored to have one of my photographs taken on my last trip to Havana included in this important exhibit at CoCA.

CoCA.jpg

A RETROSPECTIVE FROM 36 YEARS OF EXHIBITS & HAPPENINGS
Join us Thursday, October 5 for the exhibition, CoCA Legacy, and view a  mal electio nfluentia rtist ro h thousands ignificant contemporar rtist we have ha h leasur orkin it n ou ich 36-year history in Seattle. 

Co-Curators Nichole DeMent and Joseph Roberts elected ivers ang rtist hat represen iercely ndependen n xperimental works, ofte wit quall ol ocio-politica tatements.
 
The exhibition ncludes a rare opportunity to experience Laurie Anderson's "Sound Pillow," videos from Gary Hill and Paul Rucker, original art by Chuck Close, Ginny Ruffner, and Annie Sprinkle, alongside work by James Turrell, Shepard Fairey, Roger Shimomura, Mary Ann Peters, Juan Alonso-Rodriguez, Alice Wheeler, Doug Jeck, Marita Dingus, Michael Spafford, Elizabeth Sandvig and more. Join us at one or all of the following events:

CoCA Legacy*   |   Oct. 5 - Nov. 18
Oct. 5, 2017          Opening Reception during Pioneer Square Artwalk, 6-9pm
Oct. 17, 2017        Private VIP Reception (VIP tix: cocaseattle.org/coca-legacy-auction)
Nov. 2, 2017          Artwalk Reception, 6-8pm (then join us at Elysian Fields for the 25th annual 24-hrt art marathon!)

*All exhibition events at CoCA, 114 Third Ave S. Seattle 98104

Dama.jpg