Jesús "Bubu" Negrón
"The idea dictates the medium".
"As a self-taught artist, my practice varies from simple gestures to site specific interventions or labor-intensive manual work. I like describing my work as circumstantial art. Each project starts with a study of the context and a collective reflection of the problematic that define it; the context however always determines the medium I chose to express an idea".
"My work is informed and influenced by folk art, social activists, arte povera and socially engaged art. I try to find ways through which to engage with each context’s culture, their techniques and historical failures, so as to create pieces that will trigger a discussion in the context of contemporary art."
DESCRIPTION
Born in 1975, Barceloneta, Puerto Rico. Right now lives and work in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
"Bubu" as everyone calls him, is one of the most important multidisciplinary artists in Puerto Rico right now. On his series “Back Portraits” (2009), he invited people on the street to have a seat, drawing them from the back in a paper with crayons, selling each piece at $20. He did the same in Arco Madrid Fair in 2004 where he created the series "Low Budget Drawings" selling each piece at $108.00 EU in a fair dominated by high ticket items. In both of these projects, Bubu criticizes the art world and its exorbitant prices.
He has also worked videos and installations. One of this most noted ones is the fabrication of a carpet from the wrappings of used and discarded cigarettes. Working in this language of conceptualism, Negron’s work forces us to question the effects of greater socio-political ideas on our everyday lives.
His work has been reviewed in major publications such as Flash Art, New York Times, Journal des Arts, LA Times, The Art Newspaper, Art Nexus and Frieze, among others. Negron’s work was recently recognized in Phaidon’s ‘Art Cities of the Future: 21st-Century Avant- Gardes’, as one of eight notable contemporary artists in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
EDUCATION
Escuela Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico.
RESIDENCIES
2017/ Davidoff Art Initiative. Beijing, China.
2016/ Despina Residency Program. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2005/ Nether Lands Nomads & Residence, Beyond, Utrecht.
2002-2004/ M&M Proyectos, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
SOLO SHOWS
2016
NOTHING CONCEPTUAL, La Meme Era @ La Barra De Paquito. San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Reflection Room. Jesus Bubu Negrón. Henrique Faria Fine Art, New York.
2014
Abstracción de cartón y carnabal, Galería Roberto Paradise.
2011
Nuevos trabajos, Chemi Room, Santurce, Puerto Rico (curada por Chemi Rosado)
2011
Alife and Kicking, La Loseta, Puerta de Tierra, Puerto Rico (curada por Radames ”Juni” Figueroa)
2004
Jesús “Bubu” Negrón 2001 - 2004, Galería Comercial, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
SELECTED COLLECTIVES
2018
Contemporánea Internacional, Nuevos Coleccionistas en Puerto Rico. Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. San Juan, PR.
2016
Art and Activism in Latin America. Despina. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2015
7 días en Igualdad, 2004. Benefit auction for Museum of Art Puerto Rico. Paddle8.
Raphy Leavitt mural "Este es el barrio donde yo nací, el rinconcito donde yo viví". Created in collaboration with Puerta de Tierra residents in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Leavitt was the director of the Puerto Rican salsa band La Selecta.
2014
Que no se acabe la fiesta.The Hole, New York.
2011
Crisisss, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Ciudad de México, México (curada por Gerardo Mosquera)
2010
Ultra Puñeta, Ultra Violeta, Guatemala (curada por Stefan Benchoam)
2008
An Unruly History of the Ready Made at Jumex Collection, México (curada por Jessica Morgan)
2007
Famous Adults as Children, Famous Children as Adults at Monya Rowe, Nueva York (curada por José Lerma)
2005
S-Files 05, El Museo Del Barrio NYC, (curada por Deborah Cullen y Miki García con Marysol Nieves)
Tropical Table Party, Centro de Arte Santa Mónica, Barcelona (curada por Ma. Inés Rodríguez)
Tropical Abstraction, Steidelijk Bureau Museum, Amsterdam (curada por Ross Gortzak)
Tropical Table Party, Centro de Arte Santa Mónica, Barcelona (curada por María Inés Rodríguez)
2004
Stray Show, Galería Comercial, Chicago, IL
Concierto de Subterráneos, ARCO ’04 (Futuribles/Cutting Edge), con M&M Proyectos, Madrid, España
Back Portraits, con M&M Proyectos, Art Miami, USA
2003
Art Basel Miami Beach, con M&M Proyectos & Pablo León de la Barra, Miami, USA
24/7, Nueva York / Vilnius, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lituania
We Surrender, Venecia, Italia
No pasa un día…, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Ciudad de México, México
2002
Primeros Auxilios, ARCO ’02, con M&M proyectos, Madrid, EspañA.
BIENNALS
2009
Trienal Poligráfica, San Juan, Puerto Rico, (curada por Adriano Pedroza y Jannes Hoffman)
2008
5ta Bienal Internacional del Estandarte, Tijuana, México (curada por Marta Palau)
2007
Sharjah Bienal, Art, Ecology and Politics, Sharjah (curada por Mohammed Kazem, Eva Scharrer, Jonathan Watkins)
2006
Bienal del Museo Whitney , Nueva York (curada por Chrissy Iles and Pillipe Vergne)
2005
The Pantagruel Síndrome, T1 Torino Triennal Tremusei, Torino, Italia (curada por Francesco Bonami y Carolyn Chrisnov – Bakargiev)
2004
Trienal Poligráfica, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2003
Vela Parking Services, V Bienal del Caribe, Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana
Colectivo La Flexible, V Bienal del Caribe, Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana