JUAN ALONSO is the recipient of many awards, along with receiving numerous public and corporate commissions. In addition, his exhibition schedule is impressive, spanning over 30 years.

On a freedom flight from Havana to Miami shortly after his 10th birthday in 1966 JUAN ALONSO experienced a quick loss of innocence. The experience as a young person in a foreign place, learning a new language, and growing up without his immediate family has always affected ALONO’S work. The politics that have made him an outsider intrigue him since they are almost always present, yet out of his control.

It seems to be human nature to accept things as what we are told they are. We tend to believe what we read in newspapers and see on the news without questioning or digging any further to make sure it is indeed true, until something affects us so deeply that it makes us read between the lines. ALONSO’S latest body of graphite drawings is about the disparity between the truths we think we see. In a world increasingly polarized by extreme points of view, between those who see only black and only white, ALONSO’S new work asks us to consider infinite shades of gray.

ALONSO found that the idea for this new series came from very different sources. From politics to current and past world events, he found that things at opposite ends of a spectrum could be surprisingly and sometimes frighteningly similar. He chose a monochromatic scheme to further de-specify the images in this series, hoping that the viewer will explore further what is not obviously there. Nothing is completely black & white. The grey also matters. The full story is much more important than the sound bite.

No matter how they are ultimately expressed, the human condition, our fragile existence on this planet, the way we relate, isolate, and unnecessarily damage the world and us are fascinating topics.