Jose Cifuentes
Born in 1984 in a family of business administrators, I was the artsy black sheep. When I was fifteen I moved to the U.S where I went to High School and received the Class Artist Award my Senior year, only to be a proud recipient of a full ride scholarship to study Fine Arts at Bergen Community College in New Jersey. After graduation I began to paint professionally and exhibit my work numerous times throughout NJ and NYC. Due to a fucked up immigration story, I had to leave the States and move back to Medellin, Colombia, where I used my art to start a clothing brand and bring that business side of the family to fruition. The name of my brand was beFREEclothing and thanks to our award-winning business idea we suffered extortion and were forced to shut down.
Two years later we decided to move to Canada and start a life in a safe place where we don't have to fear for our lives and my art could flourish. Since December 2016 believe it has.
In 2019 I was the proud recipient of the Refugee and Newcomer Mentorship Grant by Toronto Arts Council and had a great opportunity to exhibit my work at Arta Gallery in the Distillery District.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Jose Cifuentes is a thirty-five-year-old mixed media abstract artist from Medellin, Colombia. Jose moved his life and practice to Toronto, Canada, to find inspiration for his current chapter of creation. Known for manifesting varied visual representations of freedom, his art is a mixture of thick knife strokes with free-hand illustrations on canvas and recycled surfaces. He collects and portrays moods and faces that are in vivid, visceral paint strokes, loose lines, deliberate drips and passionate splatters. All this to the great end of creating the ideal marriage of fine and urban art.
He draws from his experience as an immigrant in the U.S.A, and now Canada, to express the authenticity of artistic freedom and the emotional havoc that surrounds it. To be an immigrant is to struggle in life with instability, but this also means embracing the realities of said struggle to grow bold, fearless and free. Jose continually defies the odds by shaking the conventional foundations of tradition seminal to the way of life in predominantly Catholic countries such as Colombia and United States.
Be free!
Born in 1984 in a family of business administrators, I was the artsy black sheep. When I was fifteen I moved to the U.S where I went to High School and received the Class Artist Award my Senior year, only to be a proud recipient of a full ride scholarship to study Fine Arts at Bergen Community College in New Jersey. After graduation I began to paint professionally and exhibit my work numerous times throughout NJ and NYC. Due to a fucked up immigration story, I had to leave the States and move back to Medellin, Colombia, where I used my art to start a clothing brand and bring that business side of the family to fruition. The name of my brand was beFREEclothing and thanks to our award-winning business idea we suffered extortion and were forced to shut down.
Two years later we decided to move to Canada and start a life in a safe place where we don't have to fear for our lives and my art could flourish. Since December 2016 believe it has.
In 2019 I was the proud recipient of the Refugee and Newcomer Mentorship Grant by Toronto Arts Council and had a great opportunity to exhibit my work at Arta Gallery in the Distillery District.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Jose Cifuentes is a thirty-five-year-old mixed media abstract artist from Medellin, Colombia. Jose moved his life and practice to Toronto, Canada, to find inspiration for his current chapter of creation. Known for manifesting varied visual representations of freedom, his art is a mixture of thick knife strokes with free-hand illustrations on canvas and recycled surfaces. He collects and portrays moods and faces that are in vivid, visceral paint strokes, loose lines, deliberate drips and passionate splatters. All this to the great end of creating the ideal marriage of fine and urban art.
He draws from his experience as an immigrant in the U.S.A, and now Canada, to express the authenticity of artistic freedom and the emotional havoc that surrounds it. To be an immigrant is to struggle in life with instability, but this also means embracing the realities of said struggle to grow bold, fearless and free. Jose continually defies the odds by shaking the conventional foundations of tradition seminal to the way of life in predominantly Catholic countries such as Colombia and United States.
Be free!
$4,000.00 CAD
Acrylic on Recycled Canvas
30x40"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood.
Part of the MIRA Project.
MIRA is survival, adaptation, evolution. To construct, sometimes we must destroy. We are in need of new mindful traditions that do not enslave us but instead liberates and empowers us. We need to get untangled, sorry Will Smith 😉.
$4,000.00 CAD
Acrylic on Canvas
30x40"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood.
Part of the MIRA Project.
MIRA is to live in the real and virtual world. Here and there. Letting a small piece of our real self seep through and shine. This work is dedicated to all the people suffering from mental health issues during this crazy times. I am with you, I support you, I fucks with you.
$10,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Recycled Canvas
48x66"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood.
Part of the MIRA Project.
MIRA stares directly into the eye of adversity, studying its direct relation with self-growth and evolution. Only to understand it and say, oh dear. There's no way around it, if there's no struggle, there is no evolution.
$4,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Recycled Canvas
34.50x34.50"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood.
Part of the MIRA Project.
MIRA is uncertainty, isolation, hope, and new beginnings. This piece is an ode to life and what comes next, whatever that is.
$5,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Recycled Wood Board
36x48"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood.
Part of the MIRA Project.
MIRA takes a deep look into the emotions of immigrant artists. A very relevant topic today. This body of work brings to life the subtle tangles that keep us from evolving, from being free.
$5,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Canvas
60x20"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood.
Part of the MIRA Project.
MIRA reflects the signs of the times, where distractions make us lose focus and get tangled up on unimportant shit. We must draw the line and focus on doing things we love, things that liberate us.
$3,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Canvas
24x30"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood.
Painted during the quarantine. Feeling very abstract and out of place but inspired as ever. This is a peek inside my mind, inside my world.
$1,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Canvas
12x12"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood.
The sad truth is that our freedom has always been present, latent in us, we just gotta believe it and start living.
$4,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Canvas
30x40"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood.
Life is all about contrasts and struggles, but if you remember that you are light nothing can touch you.
$3,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Canvas
24x30"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood. Part of the Introspect Series.
$3,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Canvas
24x30"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood. Part of the Introspect Series.
$3,000.00 CAD
Mixed Media on Canvas
24x30"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the Junction Triangle neighborhood. Part of the Introspect Series.