Artist based in Brooklyn, NY
Juan-Manuel Pinzon. Portrait by Jo Silver
Tell us about yourself, what's your background?
I grew up in Maryland and spent a lot of time as a kid digging holes, looking under rocks for insects, and taking things apart and putting them back together a little wrong. The first thing I can remember wanting to be was an entomologist. I love them! They have some truly wild forms. I think that that scale of observation has remained and heavily influences in my practice.
I always liked making things, building things–fantasizing about little nooks I could crawl into. My first real moment thinking about wanting to make art was in photography in high school. I loved working in the darkroom. I think that was the first time I really felt the ability to show someone else what I was seeing and how I was seeing it.
Juan-Manuel Pinzon, "Cultches" installation at Socrates Sculpture Park.
After that I fell in love with the woodshop while I was studying economics at Oberlin College. I got a lot of support and encouragement from professors there and I landed at the Krenov School of Fine Furniture soon after. That place pushed my instinct for close looking, sensitivity to material, and love of tools. It was from there that I feel I really dove into it all head first. I didn’t find my sculpture practice until halfway through my MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University, but am grateful I did and am grateful to have found such support along the way. It is exciting when I see each of those places, people, experiences reflected back in moments in the studio.
Left: untitled (trophy), 2025. 13" x 7" x 4"
An agglomeration of objects on a wax pedestal made in response to Harrison Wayne’s trophies and "The Fool" photograph in our show, 'and I hope to see you", at Stove Works in March 2025. Found objects: mahogany handrail, metal, rubber, shells, frog leg, ceramics, graphite, frog leg, tar paper, bone photo by artist.
Right: cultch 1, 2023. 8.75"x12"x2" 7
stacked and cut cherrystone clamshells protruding from pigmented wax in a maple frame. One of the first works connecting stacked cut clamshells, wax, and angels. Cherrystone clamshells, paraffin wax, artist frame Photo by Josh Wulfahrt
“I have a touch table in my studio where the objects I collect land. The table works like a sketchbook for me. I am able to establish preliminary relationships and find exciting connections that I later cement together in the final works. I will usually end up with one piece that is the progenitor of future works."
*****, 2022, 24" x 36" x 20", melted bubblewrap
What are you currently working on and where did the inspiration for it come from?
I am currently working on a series of aluminum and cast iron sculptures that draw from salt cathedrals in Colombia, Italy, and Poland. I am also drawing on imagery and ideas from the books The Way of the Rose by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn and A Time for Everything by Karl Ove Knausgård.
Left: lucky to leave a rusty streak (iron 1), 2025, iron cast of collected objects, 18 x 14 x 1 inches
Right: Once Bitten (rosary 01), 2023, 15" x 4" x 4", Leather, wood, plastic tubing, dog chain tag, marble
Innovation does not only happen in the field of technology — it occurs everyday in a creative practice. What do you do for inspiration?
I do a lot of walking. It is central to my practice, both to let my head circle around, but also to find material. My ability to pay attention on these walks ebbs and flows, but every so often something pierces through and either ends up in a photo on my phone, or in my pocket for later. I walk mostly alone, but often on the phone. I find the conversations help keep the walk meandering. My favorite version of these walks are with a friend in person. I often find that after a long collection walk the items I’ve brought back are tinged with the person I was walking with. It is so exciting to have your eyes opened to something you weren’t predisposed to notice “Oh! Look at this!!”
In the studio. Photo by Jo Silver
Left: husk, 2023, 2"x9"x6", cherrystone clams, plastic A series of stacked and cut shells encased in a hollow shell of melted bubblewrap and plastic packaging.
Right: Studio photo by Jo Silver.
Where do ideas start for you?
Both! My practice is largely intuitive, so a lot of the ideas come from being in the studio making the work. Those ideas marinate out in the world through the days and on the walks and through lines start to emerge as I make more and more of the work. I often end up with off-shoots from current projects that are seeds for future bodies of work waiting to be watered.
Studio photos by Jo Silver
How do you make your work, does it start with a sketch?
I have a touch table in my studio where the objects I collect land. The table works like a sketchbook for me. I am able to establish preliminary relationships and find exciting connections that I later cement together in the final works. I will usually end up with one piece that is the progenitor of future works. The Shrouds, for example, started with one stiffened towel and turned into many more and eventually influenced the wax Pit works.
Studio photos by Jo Silver
Many artists live by their routines, what does that look like for you?
At the moment I feel like I'm trying to steal what time I can in the studio. I can squeak out a few hours after work, but the best is on a day off. I usually plug into headphones for podcasts, audio books, or phone calls. There’s something about conversation that really helps me in the studio. I try to break those days up with a walk, a reminder to play with my cat over lunch, or sometimes just to sit in a different room to reset my eyes.
Studio photos by Jo Silver
Who are your biggest influences?
So many! I really admire the work of Mire Lee and Pierre Huyghe. Their work affects me viscerally. I have a soft spot for the Pierre Huyghe aquariums because I loved setting up little ecosystems in planted aquariums and to see them take the forms he gives them really does it. Yuji Agematsu, too. The walking, the collecting, the daily practice, I love it all. His Zips are incredible and I love the shift in scale looking at a whole room of them.
Are there books or films that are an important source of inspiration?
A Time for Everything by Karl Ove Knausgaard helped give my interest in angels some shape. The writing is incredible and the characters are complicated despite being familiar. Movies come and go. There are a lot that are important to me, but mostly I have a friend who consistently recommends movies that make me feel crazy in so many different ways, so pretty much anything they send my way!
Juan-Manuel Pinzon, "Cultches" installation at Socrates Sculpture Park.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Jim Budlong at the Krenov School is full of gems. One that comes to mind often is “everything’s a kit,” meaning, even tools out of the box are there to be tweaked to do the job you need them to do. Don’t be afraid to customize something, drill an extra hole, or file away a little metal. Just because someone said that’s all a thing can do doesn’t mean it’s true.
Left: 𝘐𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘸𝘢𝘺, 2025 screen protector, brush, rubber tubing, exhaust flange, cricket legs
Right: Shroud, 2023, 24" x 24" x .5" bath towel, wood glue, plaster
Also, from my grad school faculty Scott Braun, “you know wood grows on trees, right?”. I tend to be extremely precious about the material I use and the objects I collect–to the point of freezing sometimes–and this little note has helped me get over that initial resistance and make that first move.
What is the best advice you would give to other artists?
Listen to yourself listening to other people. Your reaction to their opinions are as useful if not more. See how you react to what they are seeing, it may tell you something about how you feel about the work that you didn’t know before. And dont take it personally (even if its personal!) What’s the use?
In the studio. Photo by Jo Silver
Stay up to date with Juan-Manuel Pinzon
Website juanmanuelpinzon.com
Instagram @juan.manuel.pinzon