Roberto Juarez (American, b. 1952)Roberto Juarez has been an important figure in the American art scene since his first solo exhibition at Robert Miller Gallery in 1981. He was known for his painterly floral motifs, influenced by his many travels and interest in the traditions of Hispanic and non-Western painting. Since 2000, and his move from Miami to New York, he has incorporated geometric systems into his paintings and prints. This recent work demonstrates a game-like playfulness in its loosely repetitive patterns.In the studies for his new prints he combined casual, small sketches made daily, found botanical prints and magazine illustrations. The dynamic between intended shapes and emotional brushwork convey a physical sense of the artist’s pictorial dance. These non-hierarchical images allude to the way artists through the centuries have fixed the fleeting aspects of nature by transforming natural shapes and colors of flowers into motifs and symbols. Juarez’s work is in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.He won the Prix de Rome in 1997 and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2001-2002.