Meet the Artist: Juana Valdés

For 30 years, Juana Valdés has transformed ideas, thoughts, and feelings into works of art anchored in stories, many of which are inspired by her personal experiences. Her first solo exhibition at a museum–Embodied Memories, Ancestral Histories–presents selected works from throughout her 30-year career and explores the history of migration between the Caribbean and the United States, gender, race, and the representation of the female body.

“I am excited for Juana to present her first one-artist show,” said guest curator, Francine Birbragher-Rozencwaig. “Seeing Juana’s works together for the first time is like reading a novel from the beginning instead of a few chapters here and there. It is meaningful that this exhibition takes place in Florida, where she arrived as a Cuban immigrant at seven years old. Her art allows us to relate to and learn from her journey and the significant issues she addresses.”

The story she tells unravels as the visitor moves through the galleries and becomes acquainted with three main topics that are not necessarily exclusive: “The History of Migration,” “Representation and Subjectivity,” and “Materiality.” Through many of the works featured in the exhibition, Valdés has generated a voice and a discourse inspired by themes such as colonization’s history and migration’s impact.

Another significant theme is the issue of gender and the representation of the feminine body. Through several works, Valdés invites visitors to reflect on the objectification of the female body and the “whitening of race” as a legacy of colonialism. Race is a connecting thread that links the different sections of the exhibition, an issue that she addresses from her experience as a woman of color living in the United States.

Valdés’ choice of materials is as important as the themes she conveys. Working in a range of both traditional and non-traditional media—from ceramics, with all its associations of feminine and manual work, to new media—she communicates ideas of the personal and subjective while at the same time challenging the canon of art. Her audiovisual work highlights her entire oeuvre as an archive through which she analyzes and recodifies topics that include transnationalism, migration, race, gender, and discrimination at work, and the Latinx discourse she deals with from her experience as an Afro-Cuban woman residing in the United States.

“Juana Valdés: Embodied Memories, Ancestral Histories” is on view at Sarasota Art Museum October 22, 2023 – February 11, 2024.