ABOUT THE ARTIST
Juan Carlos Araujo is an artist, community organizer, and director of Empire Seven Studios (E7S), a contemporary art space located in San José. Araujo cofounded E7S with his partner, Jennifer Ahn, in 2008, and together they have provided opportunities for local and global artists through public art initiatives, innovative pop-up shows, and gallery exhibitions. The artist grew up on East Santa Clara Street and remembers hanging out with friends and cruising the boulevard as a teenager. On Sundays, he would stand in line for a free meal at Roosevelt Park and then walk across the street to Chaparral Supermarket to buy groceries using food stamps. For Araujo, East Santa Clara Street was a lifeline and a lively, vibrant place. A self-taught painter with a background in graffiti and street art, Araujo creates large-scale public murals that often combine numerous small, painterly marks with striking colors to impart a sense of vitality, movement, and flow. His work evokes the spiritual energy of generations of people who have coursed through a place and honors the sacred, ancestral realms of nature.
SUPPORT
Wayfinder: Juan Carlos Araujo is supported by the SJMA Exhibitions Fund, with a generous contribution from First Tech Federal Credit Union.
Operations and programs at the San José Museum of Art are made possible by generous support from the Museum's Board of Trustees, US Small Business Administration, Internal Revenue Service, a Cultural Affairs Grant from the City of San José, the Lipman Family Foundation, the Richard A. Karp Charitable Foundation, Yvonne and Mike Nevens, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Yellow Chair Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Brook Hartzell and Tad Freese, the SJMA Director's Council and Council of 100, the San José Museum of Art Endowment Fund established by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and The William Randolph Hearst Foundation.
SPONSORS
