Juan William Chávez
Juan William Chavez (He/Him), a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts, is an artist, activist, educator, and beekeeper of Indigenous Latinx and Irish descent. Chavez collaborates on social-practice art projects related to community building, environmental issues, food sovereignty, environmental stewardship, and decolonization. His creative practice includes public art, installations, knowledge-sharing workshops, paintings, zines, unconventional forms of beekeeping, and agriculture. In 2024, Chavez was named lead artist for Bloomberg Philanthropy’s $1 Million Public Art Challenge Grant, “Art Pollination: Building Food Justice through Creativity,” for the city of Orlando. Chavez’s exhibitions focus on a holistic view of ecology, rituals, craft/labor, activism, the archaeology of place, and his Peruvian heritage. His Native Bee Sanctuary was showcased in the Counterpublic 2023 Triennial. He presented “Pandemic Survival Blanket,” an installation at Estamos Bien, La Trienal 20/21, El Museo del Barrio’s first national survey of contemporary Latinx art. Chavez has participated in numerous artist residencies, including Artpace in San Antonio, Texas, and McColl Center for Art in Charlotte, N.C.
Chavez’s interdisciplinary approach to art has gained the support of prestigious institutions like the Creative Capital, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, ArtPlace America, NEA Our Town, Ovation Network Stand for the Arts Award, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the Art Matters Foundation. His work has been reviewed in the New York Times and Zocalo Public Square and is featured in “Artists and the Practice of Agriculture-Politics and Aesthetics of Food Sovereignty in Art since 1960,” published by Routledge. Chavez is a member of the STL Indigenous Working Group.
Chavez is the director/founder of the art and ecology nonprofit Northside Workshop. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chavez was born in Lima, Peru, and raised in St. Louis, Mo.
Select Articles, Chapters, and Publications
- “Counterpublic in St. Louis Pushes the Public-Art Envelope,” in The New York Times, 2023, Siddhartha Mitter.
- “Being with Bees: Juan William Chávez’s Creative Pedagogy Against Racist Histories,” in Artists and The Practice of Agriculture, 2023, Silvia Bottinelli, Published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
Select Exhibitions and Presentations
- “Survival Blankets: Learning from Ancestors,” New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Southern Indiana, New Harmony, IN, 2024.
- “Counterpublic Triennial,” Curated by Allison Glenn, Diya Vij, Dream the Combine, New Red Order and Risa Puleo, The Luminary, St. Louis, MO, 2023.
- “Sharing the Same Breath,” Curated by Kaytie Johnson Senior Curator, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, 2023.
Select Awards and Grants
- 2024 — $1 Million Public Art Challenge Grant City of Orlando, Lead Artist, Bloomberg Philanthropies
- 2024 — Our Town Award National Endowment for the Arts, Lead Artist, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
- 2021 — Artist2Artist Grant, Art Matters Foundation