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Self-taught photographer, lives and works in Guatemala City.
After working in New York as a fashion photographer for over a decade, Brenner returned to his native Guatemala where he began making work about the people and complex territory in the country’s Western Highlands.
Juan uses photography to reflect on the fluidity and abstract nature of identity and territory, his images capture the complexities of cultural hybridization and, more poignantly, the way power, hierarchical structures and inequality are instrumentally continued through time.
Brenner’s first monograph, Tonatiuh, was shortlisted for the 2019 Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook Award. For the same project, he was a winner of LensCulture’s 2019 Emerging Talent Award
His works have been featured in publications including Aperture, British Journal of Photography, Le Monde, VICE, C-41, Aint Bad, Fisheye, Booooooom, California Sunday Magazine, Paper Journal, Collector Daily, I-D Magazine, Dazed and Confused, Pardo, Loupe, Palm Studios, Metal Magazine, Musee, JOIA and Balam Magazine.
He is a founding member of Proyectos Ultravioleta in Guatemala City.
IG Juan Brenner
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Solo exhibitions
2025
– Genesis — Aurora Photo Center / Indianapolis (upcoming)
2023
– Genesis — TOBE Gallery / Budapest
2015
– Retratos Inocentes — Guatephoto / Guatemala City
– El Diario de Roldán — Proyectos Ultravioleta / Guatemala City
Selected group exhibitions
2024
– Winter show: FCKN LOVE II. – TOBE Gallery / Budapest
– Contra todo pronóstico – Segismundo / Guatemala city
2022
– Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022 – Musée Jenisch Vevey / Vevey
2021
– Undoing Time – ASU Art Museum / Arizona
– NFT SUX — TOBE Gallery / Budapest
2019
– Lens Culture Discoveries — Gallerie Joseph / Paris
2018
– Gonçaga — La Erre / Guatemala City
2017
– Gonçaga — Antítesis / Panama
2015
– Espacio Blanco — La Erre / Guatemala City
2014
– Esto es — Casa Tomada / San Salvador
2013
– Sextanisqatsi — Convento de San Ildefonso (X Bienal) / Monterrey
2010
– Los Padres, la Distancia y el Speed — Proyectos Ultravioleta / Guatemala City
Awards
2022
– Grand Prix Images Vevey – Documentary, Honourable Mention with Marvelous Phenomena
– Aperture Portfolio Prize, runner-up
2021
– PhMuseum – Main Prize, Honourable Mention with Genesis
2019
– Aperture Foundation / Paris Photo – First Book Award, shortlisted
– LensCulture – Emerging Talent Award, shortlisted
Presence in Art Fairs
2024
– Paris Photo | Main sector – TOBE Gallery / Paris (upcoming)
– BCT – TOBE Gallery / Budapest
2023
– BCT – TOBE Gallery / Budapest
2022
– UNSEEN – TOBE Gallery / Amsterdam
Publications
2020
– The Ravine, The Virgin, & The Spring by Juan Brenner, published by Pomegranate Press / Richmond
2019
– TONATIUH by Juan Brenner, published by Editorial RM / Madrid
Works in collections
KADIST, France/USA
FEMSA, Mexico
Art Nexus, Colombia
Hugo Quinto & Juan Pablo Lojo, Guatemala
Wolf Bauman, Guatemala
Selected Press
2024
Juan Brenner, fotógrafo guatemalteco: “Lo más complejo para mí es la carga colonialista que tiene un cabrón con cámara”. Rodrigo Soriano / El País
