Juan Alonso-Rodríguez is a Cuban-born, self-taught artist with a career spanning over three decades in the Pacific Northwest, now residing in St. Petersburg, Florida. His work has been exhibited throughout the US and is included in the permanent collections of the Tacoma Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery, Museum of Northwest Art, Microsoft, and General Mills, among others. He has created public works for Lumen Field, Seattle/Tacoma International Airport, King County Housing Authority, Epiphany School, Seattle’s Sound Transit System, Chief Sealth High School, and Renton Technical College. Besides a 2019 Artist Trust Fellowship, his awards include two Artist Trust GAP’s, the 1997 Neddy Fellowship, a 2010 Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award, the 2016 DeJunius Hughes Award for Activism, the 2017 Conductive Garboil Grant, the 2019 Governor’s Arts Award for an Individual Artist, and was selected as the 2021 Lecturer for the University of Washington Libraries Artist Images. He has been nominated twice for the Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptor’s Grant.

For as long as he has been making art, Juan has been involved in the artistic community as a vocal advocate for the arts and artists, particularly for those with less privilege. He has been instrumental in developing and encouraging business training for artists with various local arts organizations. Juan is a former Seattle Arts Commissioner, co- chaired the city’s Public Art Advisory Committee for four years, and serves on the board of ARTE NOIR, a non-profit that showcases artworks by Black artists.