JUANA VALDES

JUANA VALDES

Juana Valdes was born in Cuba and came to the United States with her family in 1971. Ms. Valdes’ childhood/adolescent experience, which informs her work, is of leaving Cuba and growing up in the United States. One of her first experiences in the arts took place when she assisted the sculptor Christo with the installation of the Surrounded Island project in the Florida Keys. This experience, at a very young age, influenced her views on art and the process of art making. Her work is presently on view at The Berkshire Museum in the group exhibition "Pesence of Light" curated by Kathleen Gilrain and at the Miami Art Central as a part of the Oscar Cintas Legacy. Juana Valdes work was included in the exhibition The Caribean Abroad:Contemporay Artists and Latino Migration at the Newark Museum. The exhibition explored topics of migration from a historical context. Her work for this exhibition used visual imagery of water to refer to the geographical experience of coming from an island.

Ms. Valdes participated in artist residency’s at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn and a three month program for international artists and designers at The European Ceramic Work Center in Holland. She has participated in exhibitions in Holland, Australia, Belgium, France and Poland. In New York her work has been exhibited at a combination of alternative space, galleries and museum: Art in General, El Museo del Barrio, WhiteBox Gallery, Bronx River Art Center, and Nohra Haime Gallery. In 1998 she was a US participant for The P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center International and National Studio Residency Program and exhibition at PS.1 Institute for Contemporary Art. She received a Pollack-Krasner grant in 1998. She is also a recipient of the Cuban Artist Fund Grant and was awarded the Cosby fellowship to attend Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1995. Ms. Valdes whose work began in a traditional sculpture style has expanded into video and photography.