David Antonio Cruz

About Me

David Antonio Cruz is a multidisciplinary artist and a Professor of the Practice in Painting and Drawing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Cruz fuses painting and performance to explore the visibility and intersectionality of brown, black, and queer bodies. Cruz received a BFA in painting from Pratt Institute and an MFA from Yale University. He attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and completed the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum. Recent residencies include the LMCC Workspace Residency, Project For Empty Space’s Social Impact Residency, and BRIC workspace. Cruz’s work has been included in notable group exhibitions at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, El Museo del Barrio, BRIC, Performa 13, and the Bronx Museum of Art. His fellowships and awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, the Franklin Furnace Fund Award, the Urban Artist Initiative Award, the Queer Mentorship Fellowship, and the Neubauer Faculty Fellowship at Tufts University. Recent press includes The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, WhiteHot Magazine, W Magazine, Bomb Magazine, and El Centro Journal.

“I remember talking to her through the moments when she was transitioning, the challenges, and it hit hard. Painting her was going through 20 years of memory."
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David Antonio Cruz

Multidisciplinary Artist

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