Biography

Biography of Juan Manuel De Luz

by Margaret Paul

Juan Manuel De Luz is a first generation Mexican, born and raised in Gustine, an agriculture town in the San Joaquin Valley of California, where his father, Leo Gonzalez, managed fruit orchards and row crops. Mr. Gonzalez is widely known as an accomplished grower. Both his mother and father are natives of Guanajuato, Mexico. Like the artist, his mother, Luz Vega de Gonzalez, developed her creative capabilities as a craftsperson, while maintaining a strong sense of home and pride in their Mexican heritage.

In 1955, Juan’s parents left their native Mexico to begin a new life in California, where they immediately were put to the task of learning a new language and adapting to a new culture. Hard-working and entrepreneurial, Juan Manuel’s parents succeeded beyond their expectations.

Juan Manuel De Luz

Setting out for adventure – Father, myself and Sister

Morning walk thru farm

Finding Inspiration

As a boy, the artist worked the land alongside his father, quickly learning the rigors and demands of agriculture, experiencing long periods alone in the vast expanse between the Diablo mountain range and the Sierra Nevada. While he always wondered what lay beyond the mountains, it was not until the artist turned 13 that he set foot in the Bay Area – first Oakland, then San Francisco. Through his adulthood, Juan Manuel De Luz has made his home between San Francisco, the San Joaquin Valley, and the Central Coast, finding inspiration for his work.

I couldn’t wait for the future, so I thought

Finished the gardening for the day

In his 20s, Juan Manuel De Luz studied plant science, helping to develop strains of virus-resistant and drought-resistant plants. The following two decades, Juan Manuel worked in environmental restoration, traveling in Europe and living in Mexico. Among his many projects, he helped to protect wildlife in the San Bruno Mountains during the Brisbane/South San Francisco housing development.

Our Airedale Terrior Andre and myself

Walking Out to Nature

A craftsman with a unique talent for design, Juan Manuel De Luz has made his living over the past many years responding to the needs of Bay Area homeowners, often returning to the same clients who have come to rely on his natural ability to problem-solve and turn their houses into homes.

More than any other element influencing his work, the artist sees nature as his major inspiration: “By walking out to nature, I find that I’ve been looking at art my whole life.”

In 2016, Juan Manuel’s art captured the attention of Peter Selz, prolific curator, art historian and instrumental figure in the scholarship on modern art. Selz was taken by the arresting richness of color, composition, and movement he found in Juan Manuel’s work. Juan’s paintings are the result of an intuitive, natural ability. This is not to say that painting comes easy to him. The artist’s own feeling is that “painting mirrors the bi-lingual experience; one first learns the new language, then one has to find their true self in that language.”

Something to hold on to – Paris, France

Arriving at the Louvre Museum – Paris, France

Top of the Notre Dame – Paris, France

Turbulence and Contradiction

Beneath the energy of these multi-textured and colorful canvases lies a subtext of turbulence and contradiction. Like the great San Francisco-born poet Robert Frost once said, he [has] “a lover’s quarrel with the world.”

Juan Manuel’s paintings are like three-way conversations between the artist, the viewer, and the world. The world the viewer brings to the art, the world the artist brings to the viewer, and the painting itself – on its own – speaking as its own entity. The chaos and disturbances of life in the 21st century compel the artist to paint in a language not yet heard before, a language so multi-layered in abstract images that in no part of a painting are they ever just one thing; they change, with each viewing. Within each piece there are journeys to be taken, and an infinite number of them, depending upon the imagination of the audience.

Juan Manuel De Luz’s work invites us on these journeys, both inner and outer, referential and experiential. As with any work of true art, his paintings cannot be paraphrased, summarized, or even categorized. They are their own life force.