Landscapes of the Natural and Manmade World Unite in New Stone Gallery Show
Work by local artists Michael Zachary and Juan José Barboza-Gubo on view through March 7
Landscapes of the Natural and Manmade World Unite in New Stone Gallery Show
Work by local artists Michael Zachary and Juan José Barboza-Gubo on view through March 7
This article was originally published in BU Today on February 19, 2025. By Sophie Yarin. Photos by Jake Belcher
EXCERPT
Artists Juan José Barboza-Gubo and Michael Zachary have been each other’s biggest fans for years. The two, who met in graduate school and now are both Massachusetts College of Art & Design faculty members, have long talked about having a dual exhibition. Their ambition has finally been realized in the new show Transluz/Translucent, on view at Boston University’s Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery through March 7. The show begins with a testament to their bond: two pieces of early art hang side-by-side, one by Zachary and the other by Barboza-Gubo, each proudly listed as part of the others collection. It’s the first thing the two want visitors to take note of as they begin their journey through the gallery.
Transluz/Translucent is a shared vision: throughout their careers, both artists have confronted landscapes—of the natural and man-made worlds and of the mind—with a similar balance of representation and abstraction, a shared attention to quality of light, and a desire to confront the boundaries of reality and the limitations of the naked eye.
“We were looking at each other’s work, and we thought that there was something happening between his work and mine…we thought it would be really good to show them together, or at least to have some kind of a conversation about the similar subjects,” Barboza-Gubo says. “I trust my intuition as much as possible, and I think the same goes for Michael. We were literally photographing similar things before we even started talking and doing studio visits with each other.”
Zachary and Barboza-Gubo’s decision to ground their exhibition in depictions of the natural world highlights a similarity in inspiration and approach, but each artist freely acknowledges that their technical processes are unique. While Barboza-Gubo works with large-format acrylic paintings/installations that border on the sculptural, Zachary is engaged in a technique-oriented approach that limits his color usage to the CMYK color model—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, as is used in four-color process printing—and combines them in intricate, cross-hatched grids to create verdant green, buttery ivory, and rich copper. Like a post-Impressionist painting for the digital age, his images coalesce more clearly the farther away you stand: a heron, overgrown vines on a fence, a skein of tree branches. The closer viewers get, the more they can understand the work’s assembling parts.
The most significant thread between the two artists is their exceptional artistry. Both Juan and Michael demonstrate great attention to detail and are exacting in their technical skills. Their work is sharp, clean, and flawless.
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EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION
At the heart of Michael Zachary and Juan José Barboza-Gubo’s work lies the ever-evolving subject of landscape, which encompasses both the physical terrain and the metaphysical and conceptual underpinnings of space.
Trasluz / Translucent brings together the work of Michael Zachary and Juan José Barboza-Gubo, exploring the evolving concept of landscape. Both artists create immersive environments that blend physical terrain with metaphysical space. Barboza-Gubo’s frosted acrylic panels blur vibrant, light-filled forms, inspired by the Peruvian rainforest, inviting close observation without full revelation. Zachary’s intricate layering of CMYK cross-hatching similarly creates a visual barrier, offering a screen-like experience between the viewer and the organic world.