He's only Seven Painting

1968 Caracas, Venezuela

Pop Art

Juan Carlos Noria aka Dixon
FUCK CLEARCHANNEL!!!
A confluence of cultures and contradictions, Juan Carlos Noria is a
painter for our times. Born in Caracas, Venezuela he carries his Latin
American sensibility on his sleeve. As a teen growing up in Ottawa,
Canada, he became an accomplished figure skater. Grace and lines were
an obsession. So, too were his ideas of subversion. He fell out of
skating after hitting the rigid class structure of the sport, finding
comfort (and discomfort) in visual art, on the streets with a paint
can, postering, skateboarding, fleeing police. A strange opportunity
then came. A world tour with Disney on Ice. It heightened his sense of
absurdity, humour and anger, sharpened his visual and social
awareness. Arriving back in Ottawa, he hung up the skates and his
career took flight with live painting performances. So proficient from
his days of graffiti, he quickly earned a reputation for highly
resolved canvases produced in front of appreciative crowds. Through
these events in various venues, Juan Carlos also ensured a showcase
for other young Ottawa artists, raising the bar and pushing them to
achieve with him. It was 2001-2002.

Meanwhile, the tide of CNNesque culture rose in North America. Juan,
always with an eye on pop culture and current events, found himself
painting with increasing anger. He needed to change the channel. In
November 2004, he moved to Barcelona, Spain to find tranquilo, a new
view of the world and new audiences. Since his move, he has evolved,
focused and become more prolific, with exhibits in Spain, the United
States and Canada.

True to subversive nature, he undercuts his own personality allowing
himself to explore two other personas and visual styles. He sometimes
works under the pseudonyms of royal or dixon. He has been infuenced by his
contemporaries Mark Marsters, Pat Thompson and Dave Cooper. Yet, he is
himself-singular Juan. He is without pretense, full of concern for
others, quick to laugh and quicker to paint something ripe