RAVEN
JUAREZ
biography
Born and based in Seattle, Raven Juarez is a contemporary native artist, teacher, and presenter.
Juarez attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY and spent a year abroad in Florence, Italy, to study painting, drawing, print-making as well as Italian art and film history. She graduated in 2013 with a BA in the liberal arts, with concentrations in Child Psychology/Development and Visual Arts. Raven’s work is characterized by intricate designs blending the abstract into symbolic meaning to tell her stories. Created in a process Raven describes as “conversations with herself”, her pieces offer a glimpse into her subconscious and conscious wantings, wonderings, memories, and dreams.
statement
I use my work to talk to myself, to untangle intangible ideas, and find truth in experiences that once left me feeling confused, or unseen, or out of place. The stories I tell myself, the memories I relive, the dreams I work back into reality, have become my identity. As a mixed-race young woman of indigenous heritage in America today, feeling truth in my identity is a sacred gift to myself. I believe in the unifying power of symbolic storytelling, and by offering vulnerable and intimate perspectives of my own experience, I hope to speak to the softest and buried truths of my audiences. In words unspoken, my stories illuminate the intrinsic connections we share as coinhabitants of the physical world and the ties between the private worlds we each hold within.
exhibitions
-Don’t Touch, Raven Juarez Solo Show at The One Well, Brooklyn NY, 2015
-Bloodlines, Featuring the work of Frank Peterson (Makah), Lauren Monroe Jr (Blackfeet), Nahaan (Tlingit/Iñupiat/Paiute), Steven Paul Judd (Choctaw/Kiowa), and Raven Julia Juarez (Blackfeet) curated by Tracy Rector at Bridge Productions, Georgetown, Seattle WA, 2016
-1120 Creative House Art Walk, Featuring Raven Juarez, Shawn Foote, Aaron Fulwider, Jim Wellman, Spaceworks Gallery, Tacoma WA, 2016
-Studio Current presents Raven Juarez and Colleen McNeary, Featuring Raven Juarez and Colleen McNeary, Studio Current Studio, Seattle WA, 2016
-Protect The Sacred; Native Artists for Standing Rock, Featuring 25+ indigenous artists including Raven Juarez, curated by Asia Tail. Spaceworks Gallery, Tacoma WA, 2017
-Moon Moan, Duel Show Featuring Raven Juarez and Asia Tail, 950 Gallery, Tacoma WA, 2018
-Lettuce 253, in partnership with yəhaw̓ , Live art making and showing, Featuring Blackfeet artist Raven Juarez, and Mexika-Tenochca artist Ixtli White Hawk. Union Club, Tacoma WA, 2018
-yəhaw̓ Grand Opening at King Street Station ARTS, Featuring 200+ indigenous creatives including Raven Juarez, Curatorial Team - Tracy Rector (Choctaw/Seminole), Asia Tail (Cherokee Nation), and Satpreet Kahlon. Seattle WA, 2019
-Raven Juarez at The Tacoma Light Trail, Tacoma WA, 2021
-Raven Juarez and Asia Tail, for all before and after, Public art installation for Bellwether
Arts Festival, Bellevue WA, 2021
-Heavy Light at Koplin Del Rio, group exhibition of work by artists connected to and influenced by the Pacific Northwest, Seattle WA, 2022
-Familiar Place, Raven Juarez Solo Show at Native Action Network HQ, Seattle WA, 2023
presentations
-The Native American Indigenous Education Symposium,
Project facilitator for key note speaker, Asia Tail. University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma WA, 2018
-yəhaw̓ Indigenous Family Day Art Making and More: Story Postcards and Stamp Making with Raven Juarez, Seattle Public Library, Seattle WA, 2018
-yəhaw̓ Grand Opening at King Street Station ARTS, Community and Family Art Installation, facilitated by Raven Juarez opening day from 12pm - 6pm, King Street Station, Seattle WA, 2019
-Fill the Frame with Raven Juarez at Seattle Public Library : Guided art experience led by artist and educator, Raven Juarez. Participants engage in multi-step drawing and painting class, and take home framed work. October, 2019
-Summer of Learning Outreach Program 2019: Weekly immersive art activities for children at Brettler Family Place, guided and supported by artist and educator, Raven Juarez.
-Refuge Outdoor Festival, Featured Artist: Raven Juarez, Carnation WA, August 2023 -Summer at SAM : Flag Making w -Raven Juarez in partnership with Friends of the
Waterfront, Olympic Sculpture Park, August 10th and September 1st, 2023