CONDUCTOR

CONDUCTOR

Praise Shadows presents a solo booth by Peruvian artist Juan José Barboza-Gubo, featuring the large-scale installation: Desborde. The multiple acrylic segments, each containing brilliant flashes of neon orange and yellow, deep blue, and a jungle’s worth of greens, are inspired by mosaic tiles the artist discovered in the remnants of a burned-out building in Iquitos, a city fringed by the Amazon rainforest in Peru. “This building was a heritage site that caught on fire five years ago,” he has said. “It faced the Amazon River and when it caught on fire only the external structure survived. I’m using the imagery of the tiles in the building, the geometry and the structure of those tiles, how they’re literally falling apart.” This work was originally on view at Boston University Art Galleries in the exhibition Trasluz / Translucent (2025), organized by Sarah Montross, Museum Director and Chief Curator, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum/The Trustees. Barboza-Gubo’s work is the result of layering bright oil paints within a thick, frosted acrylic medium, which is meant to dissolve the piece’s borders and “allow you to see the interior of the [work].” Unlike with a canvas, light is able penetrate the material he uses, creating a dimensional effect on the paints trapped within.

Juan José Barboza-Gubo

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.

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CONDUCTOR: Juan José Barboza-Gubo

Juan José Barboza-Gubo

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