Visual Art – Seattle
Julian Peña is a visual artist and art student currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle, WA. He recalls a time when he was encouraged to submit art works by his high school art teacher in his art class to an art fair that occurred at the time. After heightened hope, his teacher brought bad news and told him he didn’t win any prizes. The works on paper he submitted were influenced by anime and manga aesthetics, and the teacher tried to comfort his disappointment by stating this type of style isn’t sought for in fine art. Today he still values his influence taken from the otaku and American visual culture, appropriating his work to transcend beyond the material and physical world and into an utopian/dystopian fantasy.
Ideas are taken from the progression of our growing technology and subjugated to intense analysis through the versatility of acrylic artist paints. Bold lines, vibrant colors, simplified values, flat space, and geometric composition dominates his body of work.