Juno Doran
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Juno Doran, (born Célia Penteado on July 12, 1966), is a contemporary visual artist based in London,United Kingdom.
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[edit] Early life
Juno Doran was born in Abrantes, Portugal. She lived in Angola, Africa, during part of her childhood where her father worked for a diamond company. She spent a brief period during 1984 in the Greenwich Village, New York, socialising with many artists and writers. In 1987 she moved to Lisbon where she pursued studies in photography, in 1992 to London then in 1997 to Manchester. Being a stranger in Manchester and as a reaction to her troubled past, she changed her name to Juno in a decision to become disconnected with her history, and in 2003 she acquired the surname Doran through marriage. Although she practised painting and drawing since her childhood, the early period of her life was marked by constant moving and many odd jobs, from anthropology researcher to barmaid and radio producer. For most of the 1990s Juno Doran developed a body of work using predominantly photography and it was only in 1999 that she became mainly focused in the medium of painting. In 2004 she moved back to London and suffered a long period of personal tragedy and depression, becoming active as an artist again in 2006.
[edit] Art
Doran's reputation was primarily established by her photorealist portrait paintings in the late 1990s. Her work prior to this was mainly photography based, tending to the personal and documentary. Recently she has abandoned photorealism for a more realist style inspired by photography. She has exhibited widely in the United Kingdom, United States and Portugal. She is currently working on a series of paintings based on family photographs taken during the Portuguese dictatorship of Salazar as a new take on a more intimate and familiar version of the history paintings genre.
| I think it is impossible for us 21st century painters not be highly influenced by photography and media in our work. We have grown so distanced from nature and the raw subject that we've become mirrors of our visual culture. So we paint reflections, like in the allegory of the cave. And in a way we've stopped seeing things as real or for that matter anything which is real.[1] |
[edit] Selected solo exhibitions
- 2003 'forgetting Godot', Catto Contemporary, London
- 2000 'The Beautiful People', ContraCapa, Abrantes, Portugal
- 1999 Cornerhouse, Manchester
- 1998 The Beautiful People, Pannett Art Gallery, Whitby
- 1997 Portraits in colour, Tea for Two, Abrantes, Portugal
- 1997 Home Stills, Dazed and Confused Magazine, London
- 1994 Portuguese in London, Museum of London
- 1994 Portuguese in London, South Bank Centre, London
[edit] Selected group exhibitions
- 2006 Britishness, art network project by Another Product, Cornerhouse, Manchester
- 2005 Forever Beautiful, Clapham Art Gallery, London
- 2003 BP Portrait Award Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London
- 2003 Superheroes, Ruby Green Contemporary Art Center, Nashville, USA, October/November, curated by Joseph Whitt
- 2002 I'll be your mirror, Warsaw Projects, Open Arts Studios, Manchester
- 2002 Pop Life', 31Grand, Brooklyn, New York
- 2002 Perverse Pop, Catto Contemporary, London
- 2000 BP Portrait Award Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London
- 2000 Big Issue Book of Home exhibition, London
- 1998 Form and Fantasy: Art & the Fairground, Mid Pennine Art Gallery, Burnley
- 1994 Herstory - part of Festival of Women Photographers, Alternative Art Gallery, London
