Juan Boza
History
Boza was born in Camagüey, Cuba in 1941 and moved to Havana in 1959 in order to study at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro". He was expelled from San Alejandro due to "political issues" and became a lithographer with the Experimental Graphic Workshop in 1965.
Boza was fired as a result of the Congress of Education and Culture which convened in 1971 and led to the censorship of many artists in Cuba. In the years between 1971 and his exodus from Cuba in 1980 Boza restored religious statues to earn a living.
In 1980 Juan Boza managed to escape Cuba to New York via the Mariel boatlift. Boza described New York as a "tremendous shock" and upon arriving in New York "had to re-build Juan Boza from scratch." Boza began developing an Afro-Cuban theme that he realized was part of his culture after leaving Cuba, as well as his participation in the Santería (also known as Lukumí) religion. According to Jaun Boza, "There is no distinction between my faith and my aesthetics."
Awards
- 1983 Cintas Foundation Fellowship
- 1983 Award in Drawing from the Jaun Miro Foundation in Barcelona, Spain
- 1981 Jerome Foundation, New York
- 1967 Premio Casa de las Américas, La Habana
- 1966 Exhibición Nacional de la Habana
- 2003 The Judith Rothschild Foundation Grant Recipient
Sources
- Ed. Fuentes-Perez, Ileana et al. "Outside Cuba: Contemporary Cuban Visual Artists." 1989. ISBN 0-935501-13-4
- Miller, Ivor. 1995. "Belief and Power in Contemporary Cuba: The Dialogue Between Santería Practitioners and Revolutionary Leaders." Ph.D. dissertation. Northwestern University. (chapter four)
- Miller, Ivor. 2009. "Voice of the Leopard: African Secret Societies and Cuba." UP of Mississippi. (Introduction)