Julio Aguilera

when he was just 26 years old. cite web | title=La Venciclopedia | work=Certificado de Julio Aguilera | url= http://venciclopedia.com/index.php?title=Imagen:Certificado_Julio_Aguilera.jpg| accessdate=September 13 | accessyear=2007]

Biography

Aguilera was born in Catia, one of the poor neighborhoods surrounding Caracas. His mother died at birth and he was raised by his grandmother and other relatives. At age 6, he was making a living as a shoe polisher while attending primary school at the Crucita Delgado School in Catia. After he graduated from high school in 1978 at the San Agustin School in Caricuao, Julio studied at the Instituto Pedagógico de Caracas.

Aguilera was inclined towards the arts since he was in primary school, and he began painting at a young age after a local painter gave him a handful of used brushes and half-empty tubes of oil paint. [ [http://www.artareas.com/ArtAreas/home.nsf/Profiles/JULIO+AGUILERA Julio Aguilera: A Venezuelan Artist Makes His Mark in North America] Ed McCormack. Gallery & Studio, March, 2005] However strong, his artistic inclinations had to take the back seat for two decades while Aguilera struggled to move out of the slums. During this time, he painted mostly as hobby, giving away his canvases to friends and relatives while he made his way through school. While at the "Instituto Pedagógico", Julio enrolled himself in the academy of Chan Lee Kam Fai, one of Venezuela's most renowned martial arts trainers.cite web | title=Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut | work=Maestro Cham Kam Fai | url= http://taichi.cl//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=27 | accessdate=September 13 | accessyear=2007] and future president of the Venezuelan Federation of Chinese Martial Arts and the International Hung Sing Choy Li Fat Chan Kim Fay.cite web | title=Choy Li Fat Venezuela | work=Historia del estilo Choy Li Fat(C) y Cai Li Fo(M) | url= http://www.angelfire.com/planet/choylifatvenezuela/ | accessdate=September 13 | accessyear=2007] This decision slowed his artistic career even further and ended his academic ambitions due to the success he would enjoy as a martial artist.

On July 12 1978, Aguilera (then known by the nickname of "Kuriaky"), earned the black belt in the Choy Lay Fut in the same city.

In 1983, Aguilera met and married Janice Touht, an American choreographer working in the local theater and TV industry. With Touht he opened a multidisciplinary academy with dancing and languages training directed by Touht herself and other Venezuelan professionals such as Anita Vivas, Antonio Drijas and Betty Kaplan. After much fanfare, the academy didn't last a year and in 1984, Julio and his wife moved to the United States to live with her family.

After a brief stay in New York, in 1985 Julio moved to Diamond Bar, California, and opened another martial arts academy under the name "Eagle Lighting". This time, the business was a success and in a few years he opened other branches in Marina del Rey, San José and Sacramento. It was while he taught Martial Arts in California that he won the Bare Hand , where he divorced Janice Touht in 2001.

During his years in California, Julio always kept a studio inside the academy, where he painted with lukewarm success. After the several failed business ventures, he began painting professionally around 1997. That year, he bought fifty canvases and in three months developed what is known as the "Blue Series". [http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68031&goto=nextnewest] [http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67986] Aguilera promoted these pieces through web forums and the Venezuelan Consulate in New York, and by 2000 his work had been exhibited in Spain, Argentina and Venezuela in sold out shows.cite web | title=Art Business News | work=Artist Showcase | url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HMU/is_3_30/ai_98695169 | accessdate=September 13 | accessyear=2007] cite web | title=News of Delaware | work=Venezuelan artist specializes in oil painting | url= http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1725&dept_id=498331&newsid=14588517&PAG=461&rfi=9 | accessdate=September 13 | accessyear=2007]

After a show in the Venezuelan Consulate in 2003 [http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2003/02/14/30755.html] , Julio was appointed as the Venezuelan Cultural Attaché in New York City, a position he held until 2006. At the same time, he became the General Manager of the El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado a Hispanic general interest magazine based in Harlem, and started to experiment with bronze, producing a series of statues from his studio in New Jersey.

About his art, critics are uniform about Aguilera's style. He's unashamed about the influence of Picasso and other Spanish master like Goya, El Greco and Velázquez. And according to the art critic Ed McCormack, Managing Editor of [http://www.galleryandstudiomagazine.com/index.htm Gallery & Studio Magazine] , "more than any other artist in the Hispanic Diaspora, Aguilera has brought new blood, so to speak, to that still vital tradition, which came to encompass not only the spirit of Spain but all the antique cultural booty that the canny old pirate, Picasso, looted from France Italy and the North." [ [http://venciclopedia.com/index.php?title=Imagen:Gallery_y_Studio_febrero-marzo_2007.jpgJulio Aguilera's Passionate Bid for the Mantle of the "Old Man"] Ed McCormack. Gallery & Studio, February-March, 2007]

Recent exhibitions

*2006 - Davidoff of Geneva. New York City.
*2005 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery, New York City.
*2004 - Citibank Park Avenue. New York City.
*2004 - Marriott Marquis, New York, NY.
*2004 - Art. Atlanta. Atlanta Convention Center. Philadelphia, PA.
*2004 - Thyme Gallery, Havertown, PA.
*2004 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery, New York City.
*2004 - Art Philadelphia, Philadelphia Convention Center.
*2004 - International ArtExpo. Jacob Javits Center, New York City.
*2004 - Décor Expo International, Jacob Javits Convention Center New York City.
*2004 - Citibank. One Rockefeller Plaza, New York City.
*2003 - Venezuelan Center, New York City.
*2003 - Frames Works Galleries. Holland, MI.
*2003 - Kandu Galleries. Holland, MI.
*2003 - International Art Expo, Las Vegas, NV.
*2003 - General Motors / GMC. East Hampton, NY.
*2003 - Art Chicago, - Navy Pier. Chicago, IL.
*2003 - Art Atlanta, - Atlanta Convention Center. Atlanta, GA.
*2003 - International ArtExpo. Jacob Javits Center New York City.
*2003 - Galleria West, New Jersey.
*2003 - Art Miami, Miami, FL.
*2003 - Latin Museum. Miami, FL.
*2002 - La Gallerie. East Elmhurst, NY.
*2002 - La Gallery. New York City.
*2002 - Palm Springs International Art Fair. Convention center Palm Springs, CA.
*2002 - Feria Cuadro Madrid, Spain.
*2002 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery. New York City.
*2001 - International Art Fair. Montreal, Canada.
*2001 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery, New York City.
*2001 - Art Atlanta. Atlanta Convention Center.
*2001 - Richards. Greenwich, CT.
*2000 - Décor Expo International, Jacob Javits Center. New York City.
*2000 - Feria Iberoamericana de Arte. Caracas, Venezuela.
*2000 - ArtBa Feria de Arte Contemporáneo. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
*2000 - Venezuelan Consulate Gallery, New York City.
*1999 - Huntington Public Library, Huntington, NY.
*1999 - Cosi Public Display. Huntington, NY.
*1998 - Galleria Portal. Barcelona, Spain.

ource

* [http://venciclopedia.com/index.php?title=Julio_Aguilera Julio Aguilera] Artist's biography at the Venciclopedia.

External links

* [http://www.picassonet.com/julioaguilera/ Picasso net] Gallery with some of Aguilera's work.
* [http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2003/02/14/30755.html Absolute Arts] Review of exhibit in 2003.
* [http://www.artareas.com/ArtAreas/home.nsf/ArtistExhibit/JULIO+AGUILERA ArtAreas.com] Gallery with some works of Aguilera.
* [http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68031&goto=nextnewest Image from the "blue series".]
* [http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67986 Image from the "blue series".]

References