Filipino visual artist, Jun-Jun Sta. Ana will discuss the digital exploration of identity and perception through photography-based imagery, that is either replicated or embellished with found images and texts, that show glimpses of his 1st generation Asian-American identity, background, culture and spirituality.
Jun-Jun’s recent work includes a series of portraits of Chicago men, found and enlisted as portraiture subjects through various gay networking phone apps- which has become a body of work of obscured identities.
Jun-Jun Sta. Ana is a self-taught artist born and raised in Manila, Philippines. Starting out his career in creative work as a window dresser at the end of 1999, his work evolved into fine art after toying with one of the first digital cameras out in the market, and consequently experimenting with digital manipulation. The foundation of his work continues to be digital.
He has been showing consistently throughout the Philippines and the United States since, and had his first solo museum show last year at the Negros Museum in Bacolod City, Philippines. He is also known for his unconventional portraits, and was one of the featured artists in a show at the Portsmouth Museum of Art in New Hampshire called “iImage: The Uncommon Portrait”.
Other museum group shows were at the Vargas Museum in the Philippines for the Wahana Project, a showing of Singaporean and Filipino artists in 2004; and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music through the Brooklyn Art Project in 2008.
Other achievements include being shortlisted for the 1st Ateneo Art Awards in 2004; the public art competition for the Fullerton Station of the Brown Line Train of the Chicago Transit Authority; and was the recipient of the Avellana Art Gallery Tower 4 Residency grant for 2011.
