Praise Shadows

Praise Shadows presents a solo booth by Peruvian artist Juan José Barboza-Gubo, featuring the large-scale installation Desborde. The multiple acrylic segments, each containing brilliant flashes of neon orange and yellow, deep blue, and a jungle’s worth of greens, are inspired by mosaic tiles the artist discovered in the remnants of a burned-out building in Iquitos, a city fringed by the Amazon rainforest in Peru.  “This building was a heritage site that caught on fire five years ago,” he has said. “It faced the Amazon River and when it caught on fire only the external structure survived. I’m using the imagery of the tiles in the building, the geometry and the structure of those tiles, how they’re literally falling apart.”  This work was originally on view at Boston University Art Galleries in the exhibition Trasluz / Translucent (2025), organized by Sarah Montross, Museum Director and Chief Curator, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum/The Trustees. Barboza-Gubo’s work is the result of layering bright oil paints within a thick, frosted acrylic medium, which is meant to dissolve the piece’s borders and “allow you to see the interior of the [work].” Unlike with a canvas, light is able penetrate the material he uses, creating a dimensional effect on the paints trapped within.

Praise Shadows Art Gallery is a contemporary art program based in Boston with a focus on exceptional artists working in all artistic disciplines. Our worldview is informed by the notion that the artworld's untapped and unrecognized potential is worth cultivating, supporting, and championing. Since our founding in December 2020, the gallery has placed artworks by our artists in esteemed public collections, and our exhibitions have been covered widely in major international media outlets. Our work is grounded by partnering closely with artists to develop opportunities in traditional and emerging models of creativity and entrepreneurship — exhibitions, commissions, brand partnerships, new technologies, and original concepts that no one has ever tried before.

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