Jun Gueco Cruz | YOKE | Bringing Life Out Of The Soil

Jun Gueco Cruz
YOKE | Bringing Life Out Of The Soil

“My art is a byproduct of my daily devotion to the scripture. Each devotion is often accompanied by an art challenge that affects my whole being. I let the Spirit speak to me personally through His word and convey the message through visual arts. It’s only by God’s grace that I’m able to create, and if my heart is not right with Him, my art becomes powerless and weak. The best part is, my creativity and enthusiasm grow and passionately continue to create as I get to know Jesus despite life’s circumstances.”
-Jun Gueco Cruz

Jun Gueco Cruz was born in Angeles City, Philippines, and is currently based in Philadelphia, PA. Cruz is a visual artist and a practicing healthcare provider who seeks to portray the science of life through massive depictions of cellular processes. Cruz merges his spiritual walk with medical science into biomorphic forms of expression in his art.⁣
He is influenced by his indigenous Kapampangan identity and seeks to express this through his art as he implements the cultural ideals of “planting seeds” and “bringing life out of the soil.”
This focus is perhaps best exemplified in his first solo exhibit in 1997, Tanatanaman, which paid homage to the act of planting correlating with the physiology of life.

The spiky shooting structures that characterized his works now also represent germinating seeds calling it biomorphic which literally means ‘life transformation. His 2017 Imperishable Seed series clearly reflect this. Ultimately, he seeks to show the spirituality of humanity as it displays itself in scientific realities.
Cruz is currently working on his new series using his creative process and symbolic representation entitled “Yoke,” depicting burdens in life – a man who has limited strength, is weak, frail, finite, and fragile, using strength through self-exertion whenever faced with difficulties and struggles in life, or rather a man would deny himself and submit to God’s authority through His Son Jesus to live a life of hope and overcome with the God of truth, who is omniscient.
He is an internationally acknowledged artist who has exhibited in the United States, Asia, and Europe, one of which is the Florence Biennale XI, Italy(Philippine representative), Artbox Project in New York, and Metropolitan Museum, Manila. He has earned national and international prestigious awards in painting, sculpture, and mixed media, including the Michelangelo International Prize in Rome and, most recently, the CFA Award of Excellence at Spectrum Brooklyn with World Wide Art 2021 and GOLD LIST Award, Top Contemporary Artists of Today by the International Art Market Magazine, 2021.

Jun Gueco Cruz e is also part of the Circle Foundation for the Arts. He was invited to have an exhibit at the Philippine Art Center, the Consulate General of the Philippines in New York, the Tokyo Tower Art Fair in Japan in 2023, and the Florence Biennale, Italy, in 2023.

Read the full article in Art Market Magazine Issue #75