Biographical
Sketch
Jerry De La Cruz
is a Denver native who has steadfastly maintained his status as a professional
fine artist for over thirty years now. His
journey through the art world began in grade school in the ethnically rich
neighborhood of
North Denver
. By junior high school Jerry was
already respected as an artist by his teachers and peers. His early devotion to
painting and photography began forging his personality and how he saw the world
around him. Jerry’s potential so
impressed his high school art teacher that he scrounged up funding to sponsor
Jerry’s visit to a
Kansas
arts university. But the summer
following his high school graduation in 1967, Jerry was drafted into the U.S.
Army.
Returning
from his three-year tour with the Signal Corps in Europe, Jerry used the GI bill
to attend the
Rocky
Mountain
College
of Art & Design, where he graduated cum laude in 1973.
He also quickly jumped into a multitude of substratas of the
Denver
art scene, forming lifelong relationships that would eventually help in the
foundation of his work as an arts activist. One of these led to the creation of
‘Art in Action’,
Denver
’s first (and now oldest) art ‘incubator’, a large building filled with
inexpensive art studios located across from the State Capitol at Colfax &
Logan. This building would house
Jerry’s own studio for the next 27 years.
The
mid-seventies found Jerry in the world of traditional figurative art.
He was as often in
Santa Fe
and
Taos
as
Denver
, maintaining successful relationships with various galleries in the region.
In 1976 and again in 1977, Jerry was awarded back-to-back
artist-in-residency grants from the state Arts Council and with these
residencies explored the new world of large-scale abstract and color-field
paintings. By the early eighties,
Jerry’s gallery associations had changed and his collector base broadened to
include the corporate world. But
Jerry again found his creative juices bubbling and began integrating his
earliest taste for the surreal with his new techniques and methods.
Between 1979 and 1989, Jerry created a series of several dozen large
surreal works which truly defined and established the basis for his artistic
vision. Many have been featured in
books, magazines and some prestigious touring and museum exhibits.
In
1987, Jerry was invited to teach at the Art Students League of Denver and over
the next 15 years remained a vital player in its success, volunteering as
computer and web guru, sitting on the board of directors and acting as faculty
liaison. In 1989, Jerry agreed to
take on the only Spanish-language radio station in southern
Colorado
until the bankruptcy trustee could find a buyer.
Jerry ended up buying the station and moving to
Pueblo
to run it. For the next eight years
Jerry commuted weekly to Denver, where he maintained his studio, participated in
various exhibitions, helped out at the League and taught a very serious group of
students who came to be known as ‘Jerry’s Kids’.
Meantime in Pueblo, he brought his artistic skills as well as his earlier
military electronics training to bear in running the station which received two
National Association of Broadcasters Marconi nominations as Best
Spanish-language station of the year. The
timing was incredible, as during these eight years, the world of broadcasting
moved from DJ’s spinning vinyl to CD’s to music on computers to satellite
feeds transmitting digitized music.
Jerry experienced the digital revolution from the front line and returned
to
Denver
in 1997 (having sold the station), eager to bring his art into the digital era.
Upon his return, he was awarded a prestigious Painting Fellowship from
Colorado
’s state arts council (the last awarded).
Jerry
is currently exploring digital manipulation of his photo and art images which
have been exhibited and published internationally.
He is also renovating a 4,000 square foot former bar (built in 1913) off
Santa Fe Drive
as his new studio, a regional contemporary art exhibition space, and digital
resource center for artists. He
sculpts at the Marble/marble symposium in the summers, has two major photography
projects in the works and is expanding into Public Art and three-dimensional
assemblages with his ‘Reliquario’
series. In 2006, his work was at one
time on display in three Denver art museums – a large surreal work at the
Denver Art Museum, a reliquario assembly at the Mizel Museum and some large
digital photography works at El Museo de las Américas. He is still
regularly discovering new and intriguing areas to explore and also continues his
arts advocacy, most recently joining the Denver Mayor's Commission on Cultural
Affairs.
“There
are those in the art world who believe that an artist should devote him or
herself to developing a single voice in their work.
But, to me, in this bigger, broader and more complicated world, I’d
rather experience it as a multi-linguist.”
So sums up
Jerry De La Cruz
.
Diane Young
(
diane@artbarninc.org
)
April,
2006
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