40 x 30 x 40
In Search of Color and Geometry
Juan Jose Hoyos Quiles was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957 to parents from Puerto Rico. He has been drawing and painting since a child. Juan attended The School of Visual Arts in NYC from 1979 to 1982 where he studied under Elizabeth Murray, Keith Sonnier, Raphael Ferrer, Nachume Miller, and Lucio Pozzi. After participating in several group shows in Tribeca and the Lower East Side, where a new gallery district was developing, Juan increasingly found it difficult to remain a full-time artist. Therefore in order to make a living, Juan worked for several decades in business management for several large companies in law, accounting, and telecommunications. During this period Juan continued making art when he could but did not exhibit. After two open heart surgeries in 2011 and 2013 for congenital heart valve prolapse, Juan went into early retirement. Finally freed from money constraints, Juan relocated to Clearwater, Florida in 2014 and has returned to painting since then.
Juan is an abstract, geometric, hard-edge painter. His paintings are fueled by his love of abstraction which he has been attracted to since a child. The practice of making them has involved researching the many abstract schools of art from the early 1900s to the present. Since returning to painting he started a series named Concrete Composition, which is still ongoing and in addition he paints other geometric paintings .
The term Concrete Art was first used by the Dutch artist and designer Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931) and refers to art that is non-objective and is also called geometric abstraction. Although Juan does not believe in adhering to one idea and making many variations, all of his paintings adhere to the visual codes of Concrete Art, such as flat blocks of color, straight lines, hard edges, the grid, patterns and geometry.
He experiments with color juxtaposition, space, line, form and rhythm, often listening to background music ranging from contemporary jazz, disco, and even House dance music. Although a mature artist, his spirit is young. He relates to painting as if it were a dance, trying to understand new steps between color and geometry. There are never any hints of gestures or marks. The paintings are distilled, precise and elegant.
He works intuitively and never works from drawings or studies. One painting influences the other. He puts one color down and the next color is a response to the previous. If it doesn't work, the paint is overpainted but he never reveals any traces. His work is firmly planted in the Minimalist, Reductive, Geometric, and Hard Edge Schools of painting.
His painting technique involves a mixture of acrylic paint, matte medium, and gesso on canvas, paper, or wood, giving his work a matte flat finish similar to gouache paint and creating the great depth of color that he prefers. He then finishes the work with a coat of satin varnish which transforms the matte colors to a brilliant color vibrancy. His preferred canvas size is 40" x 30" vertical or 30" x 40" horizontal.
His intentions are to force a new dialogue inherent to abstraction that started in the early 1900s and continues to be relevant to this day. He hopes that when a viewer sees his work, they get a feeling of simplicity, harmony, order, and rhythm.
Artists that have influenced his work are Imi Knoebel, David Novros, Ellsworth Kelly, Carmen Herrera, Blinky Palermo, Robert Mangold, Oli Sihvonen, and Ann Edholm.
His work is in many private collections across the U.S. and Europe including, The UK, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Denmark.
Education
Art Students League, NYC, 1977 - 1979
School of Visual Arts, NYC, 1979 - 1982
Exhibitions
SVA Gallery, NYC, 2 Person Exhibit with Luis Stand, 1980
SVA Gallery, Tribeca, NYC, Printmakers, 1981
Kenkeleba House Gallery, NYC, The Black & White Show, 1983, Curated by Lorraine O'Grady, Corrine Jennings, Director
Caidoz Gallery, NYC, Variations, A Group Show, 1983
Art In America, Internet Exhibit, 2015, Curated by Julie Torres
HUE Gallery of Contemporary Art, Wichita, KS, Inspire/Chapter Two, 2016, Curated by Sean Christopher Ward and Lindy Duquid Wiese
Summer Camp For Masterpieces, 2017, Stirling Art Gallery, Dunedin, FL
SUPERFINE!, A Hyper-Curated, Contemporary Art Fair, Frieze Week, May 2018, NYC
"Zip, Bang, Pop! Run! It's The Cops!: Contemporary Pop Art and It's Influence On Street Art" National Invitational Exhibition, 2018, Hue Gallery of Contemporary Art, Wichita, KS
Art and Architects, 2019, Gallery AIA, Tampa, FL
JADA Art Fair, 2021, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL
The Really Big Show, 2021, Stirling Art Gallery, Dunedin, FL
Summer Breeze, 2023, Stirling Art Gallery, Dunedin, FL
Publications
Variations, A Group Show, New York: Caidoz, 1983. First Edition. Slim quarto, stapled. The photocopied zine-style publication was made in conjunction with a show at the Caidoz Gallery held from May 7th through May 27th at two locations at 226 East 3rd Street and 41 East Houston Street in New York. Consists of 25 pages, each created by a different artist including Paul Thek, Arleen Schloss, Tzvi Ben-Aretz, No Grupo, Julius Valiunas, Mike Cockrill, Red Spot, Juan Hoyos, Jean Dupuy, Robert Montoya, Luis Stand, Roger Welch, Jeff Way, Judith Gutierrez, and others.
The Hastings Center Report, Volume 50, Number 6, November-December 2020, On The Cover: Post Modern Pharma, 2019, 18 x 12 inches, acrylic, paint on Canson watercolor paper
Spotlight - Contemporary Art Magazine, Issue 23, 2021, Pages 76-77
Media
https://www.wedu.org/shows/artsplus/
Episode 1210, Juan Jose Hoyos Quiles
June 22, 2023
Interview with Dalia Colon
Award
Honorable Mention
Summer Camp For Masterpieces, 2017
Stirling Art Gallery, Dunedin, FL