Juan Hinojosa

Interview by Clare Patrick

In his explosive and vibrant collages, Juan Hinojosa explores themes of desire and identity—riffing off pop culture iconography, dreaming on representation, and creating Cinderella’s out of any and all bits and bobs he comes across. Incorporating trash alongside conventional art materials and objects from high-end stores, Hinojosa calls the viewer into a treasure hunt around and across his layered compositional imagery.

A year to the day since he arrived in Paris for a research residency hosted by L’AiR Arts, Hinojosa describes some of his favorite means of sourcing materials and his recent experiences making art in isolation during the lockdowns in New York where the artist lives and works. Throughout his practice to date, Hinojosa's collage and sculpture offers a space for exploration full of lush and playful references, while emphasizing questions of consumerism, collecting, and value.

Clare Patrick (CP): So we first met in Paris during the L’AiR Arts Research residency program. What drew you to Paris? What was the thing that prompted your decision to do the residency?

Juan Hinojosa (JH): I've been to Paris a couple of times. I'm lucky enough to have traveled there during university. There's this weird time vortex in Paris, where you feel like you're in a different world, and you just feel different. People are different, the environment is different. The food is delicious! And it also feels very welcoming—which is a nice feeling to have. The minute I saw the program, I immediately thought, ‘I'm going to apply to this.’

CP: Okay so, let’s talk about your process and the way you work. You find your materials from everywhere, and often in quite chaotic ways. I'm remembering that time you were ripping down posters in the metro in Paris and then you also had this little collection of sushi fliers and club tickets in our studio in Paris. It was this brilliant collection from all the places you'd been. How did you first start working in that way?

JH: So the idea of using found objects initially came from the fact that the concept of buying materials like paints or wood, not to mention marble, is so costly! So this is my way of being economical about it. But also, I’m eager to convey and explore the idea of recycling, reusing and up-cycling things into better objects. So trash can be reborn and have a Cinderella moment. This discarded item which no one likes can now become really pretty, even gorgeous, or a question mark for society to contemplate.

CP: I really love that idea of thinking about trash as Cinderella and making it beautiful.

JH: Everything can get reused, there's no reason to discard most of the things we do get rid of. It's almost embarrassing. I don't know how clean or how efficient people in South Africa are, but in America we’re not. But seeing the way the Germans handle their public recycling programs and seeing the way the French do it and the Japanese. It's so organized, why are we not there yet?

CP: Agreed. I'd love to know more about what you look for when you're choosing material. Do you have a specific strategy or is it very instinctual and you just grab what you can and then go back to it later in the studio?

JH: I would have to say at first, early on, it was all about what the item said or where it came from, the logo or the designer or the brand. I think America is very much focused on greed and on the illusion of luxury. It's like what can you afford, what do you have in your closet? I feel like that's such a heavy burden to put on poor people. It costs a lot of money to be poor. And the poorest kids have to have the coolest sneakers—lord knows, if you see my closet today it's awful, it's full of all this crap, it's really embarrassing. But we fall into these social traps of, ‘well I got to look cool. Got to spend some money.’ But over time, the searching for items has evolved into this idea of color and what color it is, what shape it is, how it feels on my fingertips. I touch a lot, I'm a toucher. So now everything is based on color and texture and I feel like every artist is always questioning or playing with color—and color itself is such a broad stroke of a moment to play with because it can do so much. With a very quiet MO. So that's what I'm going for now, color.

Forgive me, 2019

Stickers, ink, patches, jewelry, fabric, and thread on paper

52 x 40 in.

CP: You work across dimensionality, so some of your collages are on card but even still they're often multi-layered with multi-dimensions on the flat surface. But then you also collage onto sculpture or objects. Can you tell us more about your use of space in your work?

JH: I went to university to become a painter, but that didn't work out obviously (laughs). After my second semester they were like, ‘No. Not for you.’ And it's clear, they were right. So I moved to sculpture and it was like, bam! But then when you leave school and the real world happens, life's hard, so I ended up moving toward collage which was the most sculptural thing I can do in a small space. So I’ve been doing a lot of collages on cardboard or on woodblocks that extend past the limitations of the space. That's me being playful and having a good time with an explosion of color or the explosion of an idea. It’s fun to make but then really hard to pack as an artist, when those things sell. Because once you fuck up a corner, it's a whole new piece.

The sculptural things I think you’re referring to are the cats. And the cats are a funny story, I'll try to keep it short… So I'm not a cat person, I am a dog person. That being so, I found a cat bust thing, months ago now. I thought, oh god it's so ugly. And there’s a lot of freedom in playing with something you don't care about. Like, I can collage on any paper anywhere, it's cool. But when you touch a canvas it's like ‘oh, this is precious. I need to think about every single mark.’ It gets in your head.

So the cat was really fun to explore and I had a good time with each one. There's nine, and they’re all so different. It was a fun experiment in materials and color and design and feeling. Especially as I'm not the biggest cat lover, but these cats got to me. It's bizarre. It's funny, you end up doing things you don't think you'd want to do in your entire life, what’s next, video art?

CP: Who knows? And for the eight other cats after you'd found the first one, did you source eight others or did you have to make them?

JH: I think I found them... There's a venue here called the Materials for The Arts, MFTA. They're like a godsend to artists because they literally have every material that you could possibly want all together in a huge warehouse. I was part of their residency a few years ago and it's only for artists who are working for a non-profit or for other artists, or teachers I think as well—they can come in and source materials like once a year. When you get there, bring luggage. They've got everything! When I get there I don't pick things—I just sweep everything into my cart and I'll think about it later.

CP: Wow, that sounds like a wonderful resource. When it comes to collage there's an amalgamation of ideas and contexts and the places that things are sourced from are then reinterpreted. Is this a critical aspect of your practice?

JH: Oh yeah for sure. I think as much I am the constructor of these pieces, there's definitely a message or a concept within the piece that I'm trying to poke at or suggest obviously, or even be blunt about it. I definitely feel like as much as I am the artist, the viewer is here with their own read on the work. They need to know in a sense how to decode it and figure it out. I always say my work is kind of a Where's Waldo. So people can find items that they recognize and can relate to in all of the collages. Because the minute you, as a viewer, can relate to an item on a piece, you then have this innate courage in your mind to be like, ‘Oh that's there and what's that next to it, and why is that object there? Then who is that below it and what's going on here?’ Because all people are explorers. So I'm giving you this landscape to explore. And if you can figure it out, that's the best part. Finding the simple thing can change everything. Having a connection can change everything.

CP: So in terms of subject matter and themes in your work, how would you describe your current approach or themes that you're currently focusing on? JH: For my recent work and themes, as a Peruvian American, I was looking into the mythology of Peruvian culture and the deities and what the ancient Peruvians thought. It’s all very weird, like other mythologies are too, I suppose. So there were a couple of deities that were shapeshifters. I believe one of them actually turned into a cat which caught my attention. So I ended up making three and a half, eight-foot-tall collaged humanoid warriors in relation to these mythologies. I've transported them, because they're on paper and they're all kind of flimsy, to my current residency, LMCC on Governors Island, where I'm going to place them on 112-inch panels. So they're very big and kind of intricate—they're a little bit painstakingly annoying actually. I'm probably only going to do seven of them because apparently there was a lot of mythology in the bible relating to that number. There were seven sisters who were warriors as well. And as a Christian, there's a lot going on in my head, so I need to work on who these warriors are.

Gloria, 2020

Blinders, paint, spray paint, toys, trim, tape, and found objects on PVC

36 x 36 x 10 in.

CP: That actually follows on quite nicely to the next question of identity. Do you find your personal identity or a sense of broader community identities to be an important aspect of your work?

JH: So I feel like early on, no. I was just me, everyone was the same. It was no big deal. There was of course, you know, some moments of feeling different growing up, naturally. But currently, because of our current president, societal divisions have grown much bigger and more destructive. I was once speaking with a MoMA curator about my work and what was happening and how I didn't want to take my work in a certain direction. She was like, ‘No! Now is a time to be more gay, more Black, more Latino, more whatever you want to be and put that on display because it is an act of rebellion that the country needs. People need to see this and your presence has to be known.” That blew my mind.

So now I don't feel I jam in a lot of obvious iconography, just like a penis here and there. Because you know, I feel like yeah, identity is clearly a topic of conversation in my mind and in the works. It's definitely a presence. I feel like it's going to be a presence for a long time coming. Not in all the works. People find sexual content in the small collages sometimes. I'm like, ‘Really? You did? Okay.’ Just a red blob. I mean it's fine, it's cool.

CP: One of the first conversations I remember us having when we first got to Paris and we were introducing each other and ourselves—all the residents had come from all over the world, so I think I asked you quite offhandedly, oh so where are you from? And I remember you mentioning that you had had a few troubling experiences in the past with people asking you that question and it feeling quite insensitive and feeling overly probing in difficult ways. Would you feel comfortable elaborating on this?

JH: Of course. The question of ‘where are you from?’ is a fine question. What I don't like and don't appreciate, and what does happen often, is when I get the follow up of, “no, where are you really from?” That makes me want to smack somebody. And I often get asked that question in-person at gay bars, which I then want to punch some asshole, or I get it on Grindr, which makes me want to break my phone and I can't afford a new phone!

So to be clear. I am from New York. When people ask me, ‘Where are you really from?” that's not a question of nationality—that's a question of ethnicity which is an entirely different question. I shouldn't have to teach my fellow Americans how to ask the question. If you ask my ethnicity, fantastic. It's Peruvian. But I was born and raised in New York. I speak Spanish poorly. I have an American accent in Spanish, it's embarrassing. My parents are mortified when I speak Spanish but this is who I am. And it's funny how when I travel abroad in Germany, or when we met in Paris, people meet me like, oh you're the American. Yeah. Period, end of sentence. Then we can move on to ‘how's your day’? If you ask a white American where they are from, they'll say Alabama or Utah and that's the end of that story. So.

CP: Thank you for elaborating, because it's a pertinent issue for so many people. It ties into broader questions of what being from somewhere and belonging somewhere really means. And turning to current times, how have you been this year? How are you?

JH: Thank you for asking. I'm good. I feel that the LMCC (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) residency acceptance put a fire under my ass to get things moving and get things done. Although I have a list of things to apply to with dates that are coming up, and when I do cross things off the list, there's a weird satisfaction to that. I apply to a gazillion things every year and get a gazillion more rejection emails, but I let those wash off my back really fast.

CP: Good, that's important. I think it's a good practice to treat the work of being an artist as a job in a sense. It’s great to keep track of when you accomplish certain things, even small wins like when you set a to-do list and you get it done. We love a deadline.

JH: We do!

TRUE NORTH, 2018

Window blinds, ink, spray paint, Metrocards, decals, postcards, fabric, iron on patches, plastic flamingo, jewelry, wrappers, scratch off tickets on reflective paper

50 x 40 in.

CP: We've touched on this a bit already, but the shutdowns and the effect of COVID in New York, have they affected your practice in a particular way?

JH: Definitely! As a hoarder, I find things and collect things off the street and everyone. So now, I’m like ‘Oops, can't do that anymore.’ Because you know, diseases and shit are on everything that we touch. So I've found a pile of old things to cut from years ago. So I’ve been going through this box and as I'm finding things, I think, ‘I saved this?’ Like what would I save this for? It’s been a fun process and the box is now empty. It looks decorative on my shelf. So it's particularly helped me clean out my supplies and clean up the studio and get my mind in order.

CP: So our upcoming exhibition Site Visit is a very exciting collaboration across the different groups of people who've done or are about to do the residency with L’AiR Arts. For me it's been super to reconnect with people from our residency cohort, but also to touch base and meet everyone from different sessions. How have you found the project so far?

JH: I think this is a great way to communicate and keep in touch with all the artists, because we're such a global residency and a global group. It's a task—it's not easy to stay in touch. It's so easy for us after we finish the program to get lost in our own world. But thankfully we're all still a part of each other's life and stay up with what we're doing. Even if it’s just on the screen, you still get a sense that, oh yeah that's so and so. And that feels really good. It also feels really good to be part of the show because it's not just our group but it's all of the groups, so it feels like a growing family. I also would say that this is such a good opportunity for any viewers, collectors. I think Site Visit is such a great show for early collectors.

CP: Yeah it's such an amazing mix of people as well because it's people from all over the world and artists at different stages of their careers, so some quite established, some more early career artists. And your work for Site Visit is this gloriously golden reflective hexaptych. Could you tell us a bit about the work specifically?

JH: So I've had the gold sheets cut out in this square size, a 4x4, or 2x2, for I don't know how long. They move from here to there, I'll use it, I'll use it, I'll use it. And I never used it. But then when this project came about and I had the boards. I thought to myself, ‘I could use the gold and make them gold.’ I think I was also looking for bright, shiny, fun objects to play with in light of all of these weird times and darkness and death and sadness. To bring a smile to someone, to the viewer, is everyone’s goal right now I think. So what better way to do that than in a six part bright, shiny, gold artwork?

CP: I think the work is so cool because it's this bright joyful object. But also, because it'll be first shown in a digital, online exhibition, what is shown is actually a photograph of the work and magically, in that photograph, because it's gold and it's reflective, there's a little bit of you that shows up in there, which I love.

JH: You caught that!

CP: I love it.

JH: I was totally in the photograph as a blur, but it's hard to miss.

CP: It’s beautiful because in this representation we have a bit of you in it, especially because the project's so much about connection and being in different places at once. But similarly. if anyone were to buy the work they'd be reflected in it too and I think that's a special part of it.

JH: Exactly. I do think all the smaller works, or all the works I make, are in essence a self-portrait, and this gold one is almost like a literal self-portrait because I'm actually in it. But by allowing the viewer to place themselves in it when they see their reflection, it kind of makes two people whole.

CP: That's beautiful. When it comes to the United States of America... This is a chaotic and busy time with the elections coming up. What are some of your hopes for the future?

JH: I find myself, in these current times, to be an extreme optimist. But also a realist because we all know what happened four years ago. There's this divide now, us and them, and our current president is really loving this idea of playing with that, us and them, and creating division. Which is the worst thing to do in a country this large. Because in essence we're almost too big and we're very different people across the plains. But I'm hoping that all of my fellow Americans will recognize the con artist and the shyster, the trickster that this guy is and will vote accordingly because it's time that we join the rest of the world with basic things that we don't have.

I have hope that things will get better and we will see this in the rear view mirror, like oh that was a funny four years, it's okay, it won't happen again. Knock on wood, and we'll move past this. That's the goal.

WonderLand, 2019

Plastic flowers, paint, spray paint, toys, ribbon, iron on patches, and found objects on PVC

24 x 10 x 8 in.

CP: And for you personally what are some of the exciting goals or plans that you have in mind for the future?

JH: So right now, my 2021 list, oddly enough, is growing. I have the Queens Council of the Arts residency, that's the airport residency. That's for 2021. They're giving me a studio space and stipend at LaGuardia airport. We began this program a year ago, five artists got it. I think it's another five this time but because of COVID they've had to pause on the timing and its location. But it's still in the works, hopefully I'll do that early in 2021. I'm so thrilled to be part of it. After that I hope it will be the summer and by the summertime I hope that traveling can become a thing again. I love me a plane. And I miss the bad food, honestly. I really do.

Then I don't know, I feel like there's so many possibilities now of what could happen next, art wise and career wise and personally. I'm looking forward to it.

CP: Do you have specific hopes or wishes for what you hope the art scene will grow into or change towards in New York, specifically?

JH: Oh I think there's going to be a change very soon because come January when the galleries have to figure out their taxes, there might be a lot of spaces closing up and the landscape might look very different. I do think the ones that do survive will recognize the need to have artists of color in their spaces and not just focus on one - like, one black artist to fill the quota, I hope they'll have a lot of black artists and Latinos and the skill level of each artist will be raised. The art market will change and we'll be on the same playing field. That's the goal I think, personally I hope that's the goal of these spaces to include artists of color. Because it's time. More inclusivity for 2021 for New York City.

CP: Yes! If you could own any art piece, anything under whatever you consider art to be, what would it be and who is it by?

JH: When I worked at MoMA, the Matisse show was coming up and I said to my boss, “I need to be part of that team. I want to be part of that show.” So when we got to install that show, I remember I was in the smaller galleries of the fourth floor and there's this really small drawing of the sketch of what he would then make the panels of the stained glass window, but it was a drawing of that essentially. It was of the Virgin Mary I believe, holding Jesus, there may have been a lamb beneath her or something. But there she was cradling the lord and savior.

I thought to myself, it's lacking all color, just pencil lines but this image is the sketch for his master plan for the stained glass windows. I was like wow, that's such a thought process. It's documentation of a moment he had to jot something down and figure it out and map out the future. It was breathtaking, I need to have it. But you know, it’s a Matisse.

CP: And, lastly, if there were to be any artist or curator dead or alive that you could work with or collaborate with, who would you wish for that to be?

JH: Let me think for a second. Oh my god, Tim Hawkinson. Talk about skill level and intelligence! I saw his show in New York like ten years ago now, it was literally a motorcycle made out of feathers that was hanging from the ceiling and it was so intricate. It was insane. But all the works he makes look different and there's no recurring material but it's all, to me, just... I love love love love him.

Clare Patrick

Clare Patrick is a curator and artist from Cape Town, South Africa. A recent graduate of the University of Sussex with an MA in Art History, her curatorial practice is grounded in encouraging international collaborations and connections. She has curated exhibitions and presented workshops across South Africa, in the UK, France, Ireland and Morocco. Currently working in collaboration with L'AiR Arts Residency, Clare is the curator of Site Visit, an ongoing exhibition featuring over fifty internationally-based artists.