Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Henriquez.
Hi Juan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and my relationship with art began very early. I studied graphic arts and design at the Julio Árraga Art School, and later continued my training at the Neptalí Rincón Superior Academy of Art, where I explored painting, printmaking, and experimental processes.
In Venezuela, I was part of a very active artistic community, and I co-founded La Tintota Art Collective, where I developed public art projects, collaborative exhibitions, and experimental art laboratories. That experience shaped the way I understand art, not only as an individual practice, but as something that grows through dialogue, community, and shared risk.
I moved to Miami in 2006, and the city became an important place for my work and personal transformation. Over time, my painting practice evolved into a more intuitive and material-based language. I became interested in the canvas as a territory where gesture, color, texture, accident, and structure can meet. My work is abstract, but it carries a lot of personal memory, tension, and movement.
Today, I live and work in Miami and continue developing my practice through exhibitions, residencies, and my studio work. I’m currently a resident artist at Laundromat Art Space, and I’ve had the opportunity to exhibit in Venezuela, the United States, Colombia, Peru, Belgium, Mexico, and the Dutch Caribbean. I feel grateful for the path so far, but I also feel like I’m still discovering what painting can become.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it has not been a completely smooth road. I think the path of an artist is always full of uncertainty, and in my case, moving from Venezuela to Miami was a major transition. I had to rebuild my life, my community, and my artistic practice in a new place, along with the Venezuelan-american artist Lisu Vega, we raised two kids and make the town our permanent base, but carrying with me the memories, references, and experiences from where I came from. Also developing a new history and expectations.
One of the biggest challenges has been learning how to keep working even when there is no clear structure or guarantee. As artists, we often have to create our own opportunities, our own rhythm, and sometimes even our own sense of belonging. There are financial challenges, emotional challenges, and moments when the work feels very isolated.
At the same time, those struggles have shaped my practice. My paintings deal with tension, accident, resistance, and transformation, and I think that comes from life as much as from the studio. Miami has become a place where I’ve been able to grow, connect with other artists, and continue pushing the work forward. The road has not been easy, but the difficult parts have given the work more depth and honesty.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work is rooted in contemporary painting, but I approach painting as an experimental territory. I’m interested in the canvas as a place where intuition, gesture, material, and accident can meet. I work with layers of color, line, texture, liquid and aerosol materials, creating abstract compositions that feel like personal maps or shifting landscapes.
My practice follows material experimentation and process-based painting. The work is not about representing a specific image, but about creating tension, movement, rupture, and discovery on the surface. I like when a painting feels alive, when it carries conflict, rhythm, and something unpredictable.
I think what I’m known for is this visceral approach to painting. My work often has a dense physical presence, with surfaces that invite the viewer to move closer and spend time with the details. There is always a dialogue between control and chance, structure and chaos, memory and transformation.
What I’m most proud of is that I have been able to keep building my practice across different places, from Venezuela to Miami, while staying honest to my own visual language. I’m also proud of being part of artist communities, especially spaces like Laundromat Art Space, where dialogue and collaboration are part of the work.
What sets me apart is that I don’t see painting as something fixed or decorative. For me, painting is a living process. It is a way to think, to resist, to remember, and to transform experience into material presence.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something that might surprise people is that my work is very physical and intuitive, but it also comes from a wide range of studies and experiences beyond painting. Before my practice became what it is today, I explored graphic arts, literature, photography, and even pedagogy through corporal expression.
I think all of those experiences live inside the work in quiet ways. The paintings may look abstract, but there is a lot of memory, movement, discipline, and experimentation behind them. I’m not only thinking about color or composition, I’m also thinking about the body, language, material, and how an image can carry emotion without becoming literal.
Maybe the surprising part is that even when the work looks spontaneous or gestural, there is a long history of research, training, and personal experience underneath it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.juanhenriquez.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juanjhenriquez/?hl=en
