Juana Valdes


Juana Valdes is a multi-disciplinary artist and an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her works critique the politics of race, gender, and mobility.

Early life and education

Valdes was born in Cabañas, Pinar Del Rio, Cuba in 1963 and migrated to the United States in 1971. She received her B.F.A. in Sculpture from the Parsons School of Design in 1991 and her M.F.A. in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in 1993. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 1995 after receiving a Cosby Fellowship.

Career

Valdes has shown her work in both group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and the world, including spaces such as El Museo del Barrio, Whitebox Gallery, and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center.
She was awarded the Cosby Fellowship to attend Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1995.
She is a 2016 recipient of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Fund for the Arts' artists grant.
Valdes was teaching at Florida Atlantic University, Visual Arts Department from 2010 to 2015. She began lecturing at University of Massachusetts Amherst, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Art Department, Massachusetts in 2015 as an Assistant Professor of Printmaking.
Her works were selected along with four others artists to have been exhibited at the Newark Museum, The Caribbean Abroad: Contemporary Artists and Latino Migration. Juana's painting has permanent collection at the Newark Museum and they can be senn in private collections throughout the US.

Solo exhibitions

YearTitlePlace
2015An Inherent View of the WorldMindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL
2015From Island to Ocean: Caribbean and Pacific DialoguesCenter for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
2015Mettre Noir Sur BlancGuttenberg Arts, Guttenberg, NJ.
2014Remnants- “What RemainsThomas Hunter Project Space, Hunter College, CUNY, NY.
2013SENSEI Exchange Series @ “The Cellar” of Little Fox Café, Part 008In The Fold, NY.
2009Past/Present Tense — Tiempos del SubjuntivoJamaica Center for Arts & Learning, NY.
2006Looking Back 1994 – 2004paul sharpe contemporary art, New York, NY.
2006The Land that time forgotDiaspora Vibe Gallery, Miami, FL.
2002Juana Valdes/Pedro VelezBronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY.
2000Haarlem/Harlem-Transported IllusionsBegane Grond Kunstcentrum, Utrecht, Netherlands.
2000Empty SpaceThe Avram Gallery, Southampton College-Long Island Unv. Southampton, NY.
1998YUCAMiami Dade Community College, Inter-American Gallery, Miami, FL.
1997Sweet Honesty- Tender PinkPhoenix Gallery Project Room, NY.