Background

Juana Delgado Cruz was born in Terrassa, Spain in 1963.Following her studies in Barcelona Juana moved to England and pursued her studies there. Juana moved to the Netherlands in 1991 and graduated with a degree in autonomous visual arts from the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam. She then took part in the BIK project (professional artists in the classroom) where she learned to develop art projects for primary education. She enjoyed herself so much that she obtained a degree in art education from the Utrecht School of the Arts enabling her to teach Art and Design. She presently teaches art at the Calvijn Buitenoord School in Barendrecht, gives private art lessons to groups and is working on a new collection of paintings.

Work

Juana’s style of painting is difficult to categorize; however; its colour, brushstroke technique and the message found in each painting are characteristic of surrealism, symbolism and expressionism.

Like many visual artists who create two-dimensional works, Juana also feels the need to add an extra dimension to her work; she therefore also makes ceramics. On the whole these works are based on her oil paintings. However, she also wishes to create work that shows the funny side of life.

Views:
Juana looks at her subjects and manipulates them by mixing double images, transparency and blurring. She explains as follows:

“There is enough misery and conflict in the world so I don't need to emphasize that in my work; I gladly leave that to others. I create atmospheres in which fantasy and reality meet. It is in such worlds that dreams, thought and expectations are born; it is one in which the subject and object are no longer separate. They are absorbed into a whirlpool of colour. For me, colour is an expression of emotion.”

Reviews:
Juana’s work has been exhibited on various occasions both at home and abroad. Most of these paintings have been sold in the Netherlands and can be found here and in countries like France, Spain, England, Norway and Dubai. The works that are still available can be found in the web shop.