J.C. Fontanive
Juan Fontanive’s work reflects a duel interest in the rhythmic pulse of the natural world and the modern era’s invention of the moving image. While studying Literature and Textual Studies as an undergraduate at Syracuse University, Fontanive began experimenting with 16mm film, combining narrative and image. While pursuing a Masters Degree at the Royal Academy in London, Fontanive began creating hand-tooled mechanized flip books Fontanive has described as, “films without light.” Each compact aluminum cube is machined to flip through 72 double-sided screen-prints depicting birds, moths, and butterflies that are sourced from 18th and 19th century natural history illustrations, or collaged together; or, in the instance of his moth series, Otherlight, are original hand-drawn images. The perpetual movement through the images create the illusion of flight while at the same time, flipping through the images at half the rate of film, also gives the viewer a long gaze at the detailed illustrations.
Juan Fontanive holds a BA from Syracuse University (1999) and an MFA from the Royal College of Art in London (2006). He was the 2010 recipient of the Jerwood Painting Prize. His studio is located in Bushwick, NY. REcent institutional exhibitions include: Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI (2019); Beall Center for Art + Technology, Irvine, CA (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL (2017); The Reinstitute, Baltimore, MD (2017); Nassau Museum of Art, Nassau, NY (2017); Museum Meermanno, The Hague, Netherlands (2017); the New York Center for Book Arts, New York, NY (2017); La Frontiera, Paris, France (2016); Contemporary Art Moscow, Moscow, Russia (2016); and The Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (2015).
Conduit Gallery Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2019 Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
2017 Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL
2017 The Reinstitute, Baltimore, MD
2016 Riflemaker Gallery, London
2016 Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
2016 Danese/Corey Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Y Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Carbono Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil
2014 Savernack Street Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Riflemaker Gallery, London, England
2010 Volta 6, Basel, Switzerland
2009 Zoo Art Enterprises, London, England
2008 Riflemaker Gallery, London, England
2006 Riflemaker Gallery, London, England
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019 Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI
2018 Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL
2018 Beall Center for Art & Technology, Irvine, CA
2017 Nassau Museum of Art, Nassau, NY
2017 Museum Meermanno, The Hague, Netherlands
2017 New York Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
2016 Moscow University, Moscow, Russia
2016 Historie Naturelle, La Frontiera, Paris, France