Juan Sánchez

Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary is pleased to present Juan Sánchez: Sacred Traces, a solo exhibition of prints created by the Nuyorican artist and activist Juan Sánchez.

Born to immigrant working-class Puerto Rican parents in Brooklyn, NY, Juan Sánchez is an influential American visual artist, and one of the most important Nuyorican cultural figures in the U.S., addressing issues of Puerto Rican identity and the struggle against U.S. colonialism. In his practice, Sánchez uses diverse media, such as painting, photography, printmaking, and video, to explore ethnic, racial, and national identity. His layered images, focusing on the struggles of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican diaspora, and the African diaspora in the Americas, reflect his social activism, which has continuously been central to his work. Sacred Traces is Juan Sánchez’s second solo exhibition at Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary and the first examining his print practice.

Juan Sánchez’s solo exhibitions include those at MoMA PS1, El Museo del Barrio, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, BRIC, Exit Art, the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University, and the Jersey City Museum. His work has been featured in major group exhibitions at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Walker Art Center, Library of Congress, Brooklyn Museum, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and New Museum, among others. Sánchez has also shown extensively in Puerto Rico at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, El Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Museo Casa Escuté, and Museo de Arte e Historia de Arecibo.

His work is held in numerous collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, El Museo del Barrio, National Museum of African American History and Culture, El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam.

In 2021, Sánchez was awarded the Latinx Artist Fellowship, a prize administered by the US Latinx Art Forum in collaboration with the New York Foundation for the Arts and supported by the Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation. He was inducted into The Cooper Union Hall of Fame and received the 2020 Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award for professional achievement in art. He has received support from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Joan Mitchell Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He earned his BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art and his MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University. He is currently a Professor of Art at Hunter College.

Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary was founded by Isabella Hutchinson in 2020. HM&C specializes in modern and contemporary art of the Americas, with a focus on Latin American, U.S. Latinx(o/a/e), and Caribbean art. Through our exhibitions, we aim to augment the visibility of work by artists from these groups and foster critical engagement with their practices.