JUAN WILLIAM CHAVEZ

Juan William Chávez, a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts, is an artist, activist, educator, and beekeeper of Indigenous Latinx and Irish descent.

In 2024, Chávez was named lead artist for Bloomberg Philanthropy’s $1 Million Public Art Challenge Grant, “Art Pollination: Building Food Justice through Creativity,” for the city of Orlando. His Native Bee Sanctuary was showcased in the Counterpublic 2023 Triennial. He presented “Pandemic Survival Blanket,” an installation at Estamos Bien, La Trienal 20/21, El Museo del Barrio’s first national survey of contemporary Latinx art.

Chávez has participated in numerous artist residencies, including Artpace in San Antonio, Texas, and McColl Center for Art in Charlotte, N.C. Chávez’s interdisciplinary approach to art has gained the support of prestigious institutions like the Creative Capital, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, ArtPlace America, NEA Our Town, Ovation Network Stand for the Arts Award, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the Art Matters Foundation.

Chávez is a member of the STL Indigenous Working Group and is the director and founder of the art and ecology nonprofit Northside Workshop. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chávez was born in Lima, Peru, and raised in St. Louis, Mo.