La Casita Cultural Center

109 Otisco Street, Syracuse, NY 13204

(315) 443-2151 lacasita@syr.edu http://lacasita.syr.edu/
CONTACT: Lizet Fuentes
Email: lfuentes@syr.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NONE OF THAT, AN EXHIBITION BY WESTSIDE ARTIST JUAN CRUZ,
EXPLORES DISCONTENT AND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING
SYRACUSE, NY, February 2015 La Casita Cultural Center is hosting an opening reception for
None of That, an exhibition by artist Juan Alberto Cruz, on Thursday, March 5. The opening
reception will take place from 6 8 p.m. at La Casita, located in the Lincoln Building at 109
Otisco St., Syracuse. NY 13204. The event is free and open to the public.
In his exhibition titled None of That (in Spanish, Nada de eso), Juan Alberto Cruz reflects on his
discontent, on what he describes as a futile attempt to communicate something, constantly
seeking and not finding a more far-reaching meaning in his work. The creative process has taken
the artist to reexamine his body of work from decades of painting and cut it to pieces. Cruz has
been slicing many of his signature pieces, large canvases full of color in motion, and
recomposing them into new pieces that combine bits from various past works into each new
piece. The notion of the artist destroying his own work may seem a like a sort of violent act, but
for Juan it is more of a calculated, profoundly meditated process.
I wanted to go beyond the surface to find what was missing, commented the artist. I began to
experiment and cut up the canvases to take the work to another state, to another dimension, to
see what I could find. In doing this, I have been able to achieve a little more satisfaction with my
work.
Juan seems to be expressing what comes from a deeply felt stir shared by so many of us in our
own lives at certain times, when we try to make sense, searching for the meaning of it all, and
finding None of That, said Tere Paniagua, executive director of La Casita and the Office of
Cultural Engagement for the Hispanic community at Syracuse University. We are proud to
present this new show by Juan Cruz, a respected artist, a dear friend, close collaborator in many
of La Casitas youth education programs, and a longtime resident of the Westside community of
Syracuse. This production at La Casita has engaged the active collaboration of local community
members and students from various programs at Syracuse University including Museum Studies,
Documentary Film, Graphic Design, Public Relations, Janklow Arts Leadership and the Spanish
program. We are very fortunate and thankful for their contribution to La Casitas visual arts
programming this spring.
Juan Alberto Cruz was born in Catao, Puerto Rico in 1941. His work has been recognized and

presented in museums and galleries locally and statewide, as well as in his native Puerto Rico.
La Casita is a program of the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University. It is a vibrant
cultural, artistic, and learning center, serving as the bridge between the Hispanic communities of
Central New York and Syracuse University. The Center is committed to promoting and
documenting the arts and culture of Central New York's Hispanic communities through
collaborative programming in the visual and expressive arts, education and community
engagement.