project overview

Kroger Store #481 | Collierville

Artist: Juan Rojo

BACKGROUND

SCOPE OF WORK

UAC, in partnership with the Kroger Company, commissioned artist Juan Rojo to create indoor artwork for Kroger Store #481, located at 3685 Houston Levee, Collierville, TN 38017.

The artist’s design will be prominently displayed on a wall inside the store as part of the Kroger Company’s commitment to involving artists in beautifying stores throughout the nation. The artwork will be expected to celebrate the spirit of the community and the unique identity of the neighborhood and its surroundings.  

The wall space for the artwork is  24’W x 8’H.

The proposed artwork should reflect the Collierville spirit, and should complement the character and environment of the store. The subject matter should focus on the Collierville community and not on people. When people see the artwork they should know that it is the Collierville / Memphis Community and nowhere else.

Acrylic on Politab

About the Artist:

Juan Rojo

Born in Valladolid, Spain in 1977, Juan graduated from the University of Salamanca (Spain) with a degree in Fine Arts and he obtained his Masters degree in painting and video at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is represented in Spain by Rodrigo Juarranz Gallery and by Jay Etkin Gallery in the United States.

Juan Rojo's work has always been rooted in tradition, from Spanish Baroque painters to more contemporary. Masters like Lucien Freud or Frank Auerbach. While the paintings still contain allusions to those works, they exist as points of reference instead of the kind of derivative mimicry of his early paintings. In his new body of work, decoration plays a primary role as an element that intrudes and at times even obscures the faces of the subjects and disguises their identity. Masks and costumes are present in most of the pieces and are used to explore issues of intimacy as well as personal narratives of the models or social concerns of the artist. In the paintings these individual narratives and social commentary are intertwine and are the product of the collaborative process between model and artist that materializes at the photo shoots. There is a playful and trusting relationship between artist and his (always non professional) models that allows the artist to use their bodies as mannequins, as structures to which all sorts of objects can be attached. Some objects are meaningful to the models but others are used just to compose form, color or line. This dress-up process is intuitive and anarchic but also treated with great care and a fundamental part of the artistic process. This playful approach helps Rojo to discover new forms and to deepen his exploration of the figure.