Artist Mentorship Program
Juan-Carlos Perez and Josh Friedman

Bios
Juan-Carlos Perez was born in Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico and raised in Pasadena California. After receiving his degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), he continued his studio arts practice as an Interdisciplinary Artist, Visual Arts Educator & Muralist. His community work has brought him into numerous neighborhoods throughout Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Kansas City and West Africa. Juan-Carlos’ work investigates how perspectives today continue to be shaped by an old, past colonial rule: A European blueprint of laws that have created and normalized an American culture or narrative built to dominate and create systems of power that have led to today’s social & class divides.—the same social/racial issues that incoming immigrants and new generations of Mexicanos and Latinos still face today.
Josh Friedman has exhibited his works on paper and sculpture in galleries and museums in China, Italy, Japan, Korea, the United States and Thailand. His work has been included in exhibitions in the Cranbrook Museum of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; the Shanghai Hongqiao Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China; Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan; the Ministry of Culture Galleries, Bangkok Thailand; the Andaman Museum of Art, Krabi, Thailand; the Palazzo della Cultura, Vallo della Lucania, Italy; and Art Hotel Gran Paradiso, Sorrento, Italy. His work is held in public, institutional, municipal and private collections in Asia, Europe and North America.