Audio:
Juan Alonso-Rodríguez describes his paintings and sculptures as an on-going exploration of abstraction based on forms both found in nature, and those conceived by human ingenuity. From horizon lines to his father’s wrought iron railing designs, memories of sights and sounds of his Caribbean origins always play an integral part in his creativity. He is influenced by the organized balance, pattern, and symmetry found in nature as well as that of architecture that lives in harmony with the natural world.
In the first Gage art talk of the season, Scott Méxcal interviews Alonso-Rodríguez about how he “accidentally” became a professional artist, his long career in the Pacific Northwest, being Latinx, the changing Seattle landscape, and the process of art as meditation.
Cuban-born Juan Alonso-Rodríguez is a self-taught artist whose transition from music to visual arts coincided with his move to Seattle in 1982. His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and is included in permanent collections such as Tacoma Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, and Henry Art Gallery. He has won a Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award, The Neddy Fellowship, and the DeJunius Hughes Award for Activism. In 2019 he received an Artist Trust Fellowship and the Washington State Governor’s Arts Award for an Individual Artist. He was selected Lecturer for the 2021 University of Washington Libraries’ Artist Images.
Scott Méxcal (né McCall) is a cultural worker in the genre of socially engaged practice art. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Scott’s ancestors have lived on both sides of the Rio Grande for countless generations. Descended from indigenous people and Spanish/European colonizers, he has called the traditional homeland of the Duwamish people, Seattle, Washington, his home for the past 20 years. Scott has contributed to the creative cultural fabric of the city as a graphic designer, a public artist, a youth art mentor, and art activist. His work has hung in numerous exhibitions throughout the city and surrounding area.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Gage Academy of Art.
