The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) presents Wayfinder: Juan Carlos Araujo through November 6, 2022. Installed along East Santa Clara Street between Market and 20th streets, Araujo’s street banners are designed with bright, ebullient colors and dynamic imagery. Each banner features similar yet unique details of Serpiente Emplumada, a large mural painted by the artist in 2020. Araujo’s abstract and vivid patterns recall the dynamic underwater movements of schooling fish or the unfurled wings of a bird. Sited along the main traffic corridor connecting East San José with the city’s urban core, Araujo’s installation combines personal and cultural motifs to celebrate the energy of the area’s legendary lowrider car culture and to honor ancestral connections.
Clare Rojas was the first artist to be invited for this series that offers pedestrians, commuters, residents, and Museum visitors continuous access to contemporary art and encourages them to explore the downtown San José. In 2021, Rojas created 40 streetlight banners along South Market and West San Carlos streets.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Juan Carlos Araujo is an artist, community organizer, and director of Empire Seven Studios (E7S), a contemporary art space located in San José. Araujo cofounded E7S with his partner, Jennifer Ahn, in 2008, and together they have provided opportunities for local and global artists through public art initiatives, innovative pop-up shows, and gallery exhibitions. The artist grew up on East Santa Clara Street and remembers hanging out with friends and cruising the boulevard as a teenager. On Sundays, he would stand in line for a free meal at Roosevelt Park and then walk across the street to Chaparral Supermarket to buy groceries using food stamps. For Araujo, East Santa Clara Street was a lifeline and a lively, vibrant place. A self-taught painter with a background in graffiti and street art, Araujo creates large-scale public murals that often combine numerous small, painterly marks with striking colors to impart a sense of vitality, movement, and flow. His work evokes the spiritual energy of generations of people who have coursed through a place and honors the sacred, ancestral realms of nature.
ABOUT WAYFINDER
Launched in 2021, Wayfinder is a commissioning program by SJMA that invites Bay Area artists to design streetlight banners for temporary display in downtown San José. Wayfinder reimagines existing banner infrastructure as a venue for public art, enlivening city streets with cutting-edge art and design.
SUPPORT
Wayfinder: Juan Carlos Araujo is supported by the SJMA Exhibitions Fund, with a generous contribution from First Tech Federal Credit Union.
Operations and programs at the San José Museum of Art are made possible by generous support from the Museum's Board of Trustees, US Small Business Administration, Internal Revenue Service, a Cultural Affairs Grant from the City of San José, the Lipman Family Foundation, the Richard A. Karp Charitable Foundation, Yvonne and Mike Nevens, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Yellow Chair Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Brook Hartzell and Tad Freese, the SJMA Director's Council and Council of 100, the San José Museum of Art Endowment Fund established by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and The William Randolph Hearst Foundation.
SAN JOSÉ MUSEUM OF ART
The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum dedicated to inclusivity, new thinking, and visionary ideas. Founded in 1969 by artists and community leaders, its dynamic exhibitions, collection, and programs resonate with defining characteristics of San José and the Silicon Valley—from its rich diversity to its hallmark innovative ethos. The Museum offers lifelong learning for school children and their educators, multigenerational families, creative adults, university students and faculty, and community groups. SJMA is committed to being a borderless museum, essential to creative life throughout the diverse communities of San José and beyond.
SJMA is located at 110 South Market Street in downtown San José, California. Starting July 1, 2022, the Museum is open Thursday, 5–9pm; Friday 11am–9pm; and Saturday–Sunday, 11am–6pm. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, and free to members, college students, youth and children ages 17 and under, and school teachers (with valid ID). Admission is free from 6–9pm on the first Friday of every month. For more information, call 408.271.6840 or visit SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.
Visitors 2 years and older are required to wear a mask. SJMA will carefully and continually monitor the efficacy of these guidelines in real time and make further adjustments as needed.