Juan-Carlos Perez

2021 3Arts Fellow

Juan-Carlos Perez

Juan-Carlos Perez was born in Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico and raised in Pasadena California. After receiving a degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago he continued his studio arts practice and began his work as Visual Arts Educator/ Muralist in neighborhoods throughout the United States and West Africa. Juan-Carlos is a 3ARTS Chandler Award recipient.

Juan-Carlos is a Multidisciplinary Artist whose work investigates how perspectives today continue to be shaped by an old, past colonial rule: A European blueprint of laws that have created and normalized an American culture or narrative built to dominate and create systems of power that have led to today’s social & class divides on issues such as: immigration, racism, violence, religion (etc.) and has historically disenfranchised communities of color. In his art practice, Juan-Carlos confronts these barriers or perspectives determined to own through aggression/ dominance. The same social/racial issues that incoming immigrants and new generations of Mexicanos and Latinos still face today.

Through his art teaching practice, Juan-Carlos worked in Chicago neighborhoods for 20 years deconstructing the many nuances that feed into systemic racism and how people of color view or value themselves today. Engaging community in dialogue and discussions about the consistent, undercurrent racism evident in American history for hundreds of years that have led to a relationship of mistrust. These conversations feed into Juan-Carlos’s studio art-making practice. Color constantly bringing its value to light: fighting to make its worth visible in a society or landscape constantly trying to take it away.