Juan Bolivar

Biography

Juan Bolivar (born Caracas, Venezuela, 1966) is an artist and curator.

His paintings negotiate the tension between meaning and form. He combines elements from disparate sources to investigate intertextuality, language and abstraction.

Bolivar's work often re-enacts seminal cannons of modernist painting such as Kazimir Malevich's 'black square'; using this context of (mis)interpretation to create new meanings through intertextual references with popular culture. With an investment in ideas of the text, Bolivar's research explores the porosity of images and the text; through a material investigation and repositioning of hard-edge painting.

Bolivar graduated from Goldsmiths College and has twice been a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner award.

His work is included in The Government Art Collection, and selected for significant exhibitions such as New British Painting at John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton and East International at Norwich School of Art. His work was included in Nanjing Museum's first international exhibition of contemporary art where he was a prize winner.

As an independent curator he has worked on over 50 exhibitions with a focus on intergenerational, multidisciplinary practices and polysemic cultural dialogues.