Carlos Donjuan, Porque Te Vas?, 2012
Click here to purchase
Carlos Donjuan was born in San Luis Potosi, San Luis, Mexico in 1982. He immigrated to the United States with his family at the very young age of 3. He grew up in Dallas, Texas where he discovered graffiti art, which helped him develop a passion for art and painting. He holds an M.F.A from The University of Texas at San Antonio, studying under Ken Little. Donjuan is currently a professor at The University of Texas at Arlington where he teaches drawing and painting.
Currently residing in Dallas, he remains an active graffiti artist painting murals throughout the city. His paintings have been exhibited in several galleries nationally and internationally. The Cheech Marin Collection – which houses the largest private Chicano Art collection in America – recently acquired several of Donjuan’s paintings. Visit Donjuan’s website to learn more about his art.
My work deals with the combination of several subcultures that I am involved with or interested in. Some examples of these movements include graffiti, street fashion, and underground music. These subcultures are rich, diverse and always growing and changing. I attempt to present work that interprets and, in some way glorifies, the people that are part of these scenes. My portraits, like these movements, are influenced and created by mixing the old and the present to create something new.
The paintings deal with an array of formal issues ranging from those of classical portraiture to the elements of graffiti art. For me, it’s important that I create work that shows my art training from both academia and the streets.
It’s also important to me that I preserve and represent these underground subcultures. We are building and documenting our own history through our art because every day it grows and changes.
–Carlos Donjuan