2021 Artist Images

For the 2021 edition, we'll talk with artist Juan Alonso-Rodríguez. A Cuban-born, self-taught artist whose transition from music to visual arts coincided with his move to Seattle in 1982, his work has been exhibited throughout the US, Canada and Latin America and is included in the permanent collections of the Tacoma Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, Museum of Northwest Art, Microsoft, Swedish & Harborview Hospitals, and General Mills. He has created public works for Century Link Field, Seattle/Tacoma International Airport, King County Housing Authority, Epiphany School, Sound Transit’s Light Rail system, Chief Sealth High School and Renton Technical College. Juan is a former Seattle Arts Commissioner and served four years on the Public Art Advisory Committee for the City of Seattle.

His awards include a 2010 Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award, The Neddy Fellowship, PONCHO Artist of the Year, two Artist Trust GAPs, three 4Culture Individual Artist Grants, ArtSpace’s 2016 Dejunius Hughes Award for Activism, the 2017 Conductive Garboil Grant, a 2019 Artist Trust Fellowship and a 2019 Washington State Governor’s Arts Award: Individual.

This FREE, virtual discussion will explore the artist’s influences past and present, COVID-era impacts and perspective on the future. The discussion will be facilitated by Seattle Arts Commissioner, Vivian Phillips and UW Libraries' Anne Jenner, with remarks from UW President, Ana Marie Cauce and the new dean of UW Libraries, Simon Neame.