1970s Jerry De La Cruz Nude Female Kavin at Home Charcoal Drawing on Paper 33"

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Vintage Jerry Del La Cruz original charcoal drawing on paper titled Kavin, At Home. Features a nude female figure undressing. … Read more Vintage Jerry Del La Cruz original charcoal drawing on paper titled Kavin, At Home. Features a nude female figure undressing. Circa 1974.

Jerry De La Cruz is a Denver native who has steadfastly maintained his status as a professional fine artist for almost thirty years now. His journey through the art world began in grade school in the predominately Hispanic neighborhood of North Denver. By junior high school Jerry was already respected as an artist by his teachers and peers. His early devotion to painting and photography began forging his personality and how he sees the world around him. Jerry's potential so impressed his high school art teacher that he scrounged up funding to sponsor Jerry's visit to a university of arts and music in Kansas. But the summer following his high school graduation in 1967, Jerry was drafted into the U.S. Army.

Returning from his three-year tour as a technician with the Signal Corps in Europe (where he was first introduced to early generation computer-based communication technology), Jerry used the GI bill to attend Rocky Mountain School of Art in Denver, now the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design, where he graduated cum laude in 1973. He also quickly jumped into a multitude of substrata's of the Denver art scene forming life-long relationships that would eventually help in the foundation of his work as an arts activist. One of these led to the creation of 'Art in Action', Denver's first (and now oldest) art 'incubator' building, located across from the State Capitol at Colfax & Logan. This building would house Jerry's own studio for the next 27 years.

The mid-seventies found Jerry deeply involved in the world of traditional figurative art. He was as often in Santa Fe and Taos as Denver, maintaining successful relationships with various galleries around the region. In 1976 and again in 1977, Jerry was awarded back-to-back artist-in-residency grants from the state Arts Council. He used this time to begin exploration in large-scale abstract works. In 1980, Jerry joined a collector friend in a second studio to explore the world of abstract and color field paintings and over time developed his own unique style in that process.

By the late eighties, Jerry was with a completely different group of galleries, selling to a completely different set of collectors. Again, he became a popular name that sold well, this time in the corporate world. At the same time, Jerry began integrating his long time taste for the surreal with his new techniques and methods. Between 1979 and 1989, Jerry created a series of large surreal works which to this day remain the body of work that truly defines him as an artist. Many have been featured in books, magazines and some prestigious touring and museum exhibits, but most remain in the artist's own collection.

In 1987, Jerry was invited to teach at the Art Students League of Denver and has been a vital part of its success to this day. Two years later Jerry's career was to take another sharp turn. He bought a Spanish-language radio station in Pueblo, Colorado and moved there to help run the station for six months. This turned into eight years. Throughout those eight years Jerry commuted weekly to Denver, where he maintained his studio, to teach at the League and participate in various exhibitions.

He brought his artistic skills as well as his earlier military electronics training to bear in running the station which received two Marconi nominations for Spanish Language Station of the Year. The timing was incredible, as the world of broadcasting moved from DJ's spinning vinyl to CD's to satellite fed computers transmitting digitized music files. Jerry experienced the digital revolution from the front line and returned to Denver in 1997 (having sold the station) eager to bring his art into the digital era.

Jerry is exploring digital manipulation of his photo and art images which have been exhibited and published internationally.

He is designing web sites, and is renovating a 4,000 square foot bar (built in 1913) off Santa Fe Drive as his new studio, a regional contemporary art exhibition space, and digital resource center for artists. He sculpts up at the Marble/marble symposium in the summers, travels several months a year (working on multiple ongoing photography projects) and is expanding into three-dimensional assemblages and manipulated collage works. He is still regularly discovering new and intriguing areas to explore.

"There are those in the art world who believe that an artist should devote him or herself to developing a single voice in their work. But, to me, in this bigger, broader and more complicated world, I'd rather experience it as a multi-linguist." So sums up Jerry De La Cruz.

Dimensions:
20.5" x 32.5", sans 13.5" x 25.5" See less