Aspen Art Fair: Juan José Barboza-Gubo, Oliver Jeffers, Yuri Shimojo

Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo (Peru, 1976) received his Bachelor’s Degree at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (graduating with honors). He received MFA degrees in Painting and in Sculpture, both from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Solo exhibitions include: Museum of Contemporary Art, Peru; Memory Museum, Peru; The Museum of Sex, New York; Inter Kultur Foto Art; Instituto Francés de Stuttgart; Museo Colonia Bogota Colombia; Galeria German Kruger Espantoso ICPNA-Peru; The Fitchburg Museum; among others. Recent awards of note include the 2019 Fellowship in Photography from the Mass Cultural Council, 2019 Icpna arte contemporaneo second award, 2018 Photolucida Critical Mass: Top 50, 2016 Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship in Sculpture, 2015 Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship in Painting, and others. In 2014 he was named the Breakout Artist of the Year by Artscope Magazine. His exhibitions have been reviewed in publications such as The Boston Globe, Artscope Magazine, Artsy, PRI’s The World, The Huffington Post, The Advocate, The Houston Press, El Comercio (Peru), and Lenscratch. Barboza-Gubo currently teaches at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Oliver Jeffers (b. 1977, lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Brooklyn, NY) is a visual artist and author working in painting, bookmaking, illustration, collage, performance and sculpture. Curiosity, perspective, the power of storytelling, and humor are underlying themes throughout Jeffers's practice. While investigating the ways the human mind understands its world, and place within that world, his work also functions as comic relief in the face of futility.  

Current directions for his art-making include the imaginary lines across land and in the sky. With the former, Jeffers— with a deep suspicion of Nationalism, Patriotism and Isolationism, born from growing up with the political and national uncertainty of a turbulent Belfast in the 1970s and 80s— picks apart the powerful story of human made borders, of how people treat other people. Jeffers uses the construct of star constellations to take a longer lens approach to humanity’s story.