Enrique Figueredo
Enrique Figueredo
Enrique Figueredo is a Venezuelan-American artist who immigrated from South America at an early age. Figueredo’s work looks closely at the forces and issues affecting today’s world—economy, religion, immigration, power—and relates those incidents to the visual history of ancient civilizations, the colonization of the Americas, and mythology. Recent projects include a solo exhibition at The Re Institute (At the Edge of Lawlessness), group shows at International Print Center New York (Multilayered), ARTag Gallery (The Happiness Index) in Helsinki, and a site-specific installation on 14th Street in NYC for Art In Odd Places 2017: SENSE. Figueredo is the recipient of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Award (2019), and the Nadine Goldsmith Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center (2019). Figueredo studied at Purchase College (SUNY) earning a BFA in 2004, with a printmaking concentration, and earned his MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University in 2019. Figueredo is currently the Fountainhead Fellow and visiting faculty in the Department of Painting + Printmaking at VCUarts in Richmond, VA.
At the foundation of my work is a specific social message and figuration based on memory and personal experience. The social message is rooted in folklore narratives, the economy of the Americas, and the crossing from illegal immigrant to naturalized citizen. The work thrives when researching historical and current facts and fiction that define the Americas. In creating revised accounts, I disrupt the viewer’s perception of authenticity in order to generate cultural critique. I utilize iconography to address identity, labor, and politics. The mixed references do not lead toward a particular resolution, rather they point toward a bold imagination.
