The University of Alabama Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition Dichotomies/Dicotomías: Juan M. López-Bautista, from June 7 to July 26, 2024. The public is invited to a reception for the artist on Friday, June 7, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., during downtown Tuscaloosa’s First Friday Art Walk.
Juan M. López-Bautista, a Mexican American artist and biologist, creates large mixed media works of images related to people migrating to the US-Mexican border. The child of an American father and a Mexican mother, López-Bautista’s explorations of his own maternal family’s migration from central Mexico to the US “provided me with clues to understand my complex identity” and led him to empathize with what other Mexican immigrants have gone through and are going through now. “My work,” he said, “represents an empathetic invitation to appreciate the migratory issue…and to embrace my immigrant and hyphenated citizenship identities.”
López-Bautista is a professor of biology at The University of Alabama. He has held recent solo exhibitions at the Gadsden (AL) Museum of Art, Lowe Mill Arts in Huntsville, AL, Hoover (AL) Library Gallery, and the Martin-Lett Gallery of Art in the Oxford (AL) Performing Arts Center. He holds an MFA in painting and printmaking from The University of Alabama and a PhD in plant biology from Louisiana State University. López-Bautista has taught for more than two decades in UA’s department of biology where his scientific research focuses on the biodiversity, systematics and phylogenomics of marine and terrestrial algae and he teaches courses in the biology of algae, plant biology and advanced phycology.
The University of Alabama Gallery is an essential part of the education and development of UA students and our community. Admission to the gallery, which is located in the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center at 620 Greensboro Avenue in Tuscaloosa, is free. Hours are Monday through Friday, 9 am-4 pm and First Fridays 12 noon-7 pm. Have questions or need assistance? Call (205) 345-3038.
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in art history and studio art, visit our Degree Programs page.