Juan Araujo

Juan Araujo was born in 1971 in Caracas, Venezuela. He lives and works in Porto, Portugal. 

Each exhibition of Araujo’s work is a dense forest of connections and references, a palimpsest of narratives directing our attention to the work of architects such as Luis Barragán, Pancho Guedes, Burle Marx and Lina Bo Bardi or artists including Josef Albers, Mark Rothko and Jorge Molder.

Since moving to Portugal from Venezuela, Araujo has become fascinated with the genesis of modern and postmodern architecture in Europe and how these ideals later travelled across the Atlantic to influence the development of twentieth century Latin American architecture. Examples include Oscar Niemeyer’s ‘Casa das Canoas’ (1953) in Rio de Janeiro; Lina Bo Bardis’ ‘Casa de Vidro’ (1951) in São Paulo and the Luis Barragán house (1948) in Mexico City.

Araujo’s solo exhibition ‘Clouds and Shadows on Mars’ opened at Palazzo Massimo, Rome, Italy in March 2023. Stephen Friedman Gallery hosted its second solo exhibition of Araujo’s work in London in 2022, following his large-scale installation ‘The Hunter’s Dream’ at Art Basel Unlimited 2021. The artist was the subject of a major solo presentation ‘Measurable distances of space and air' at PEER, London in 2019. He has exhibited widely throughout South America and internationally including solo presentations at Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal (2018); Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil (2013) and Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2008).

His work is found in numerous public collections including Tate, London, UK; Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Jumex Collection, Mexico City, Mexico and Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil.