Biography
A Dreamer, Craftsman and Artist based in Miami, Florida
Jesus Lapera was born in Alicante, Spain. His interest in art and restoration began early. He inherited a tradition of fine craftsmanship from his father and family, which has grown into a drive to create beautiful and useful objects enriching the environment.
His father taught him to restore objects and art pieces in need of loving care. He has restored works from Frederic Remington, Fernando Botero, Hector Poleo, Pedro Angel Gonzalez, Jesus R. Soto, Carlos Cruz Diez, Luisa Palacios, Claudio Pechio, and Lola Altamirano among others. Jesus graduated as an architect from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1978. At the time, he designed multiple residential and commercial projects in Caracas. He experimented adding art and murals in the conceptualization of houses and specifically for the foyers of office buildings he designed in Caracas.
While at architecture school, he had the privilege to have access to the invaluable collection of modern art installed at UCV, from Jean Arp and Alexander Calder to Oswaldo Vigas and Francisco Narvaez. At the same time, he enjoyed the unique opportunity to attend classes with artists such as Gertrude Goldschmidt (Gego) and Pedro Leon Zapata. During his time in Caracas, Jesus established close contact with renown Venezuelan artists such as Jesus R. Soto, Carlos Cruz Diez, Oswaldo Vigas, Adrian Pujol, Asdrubal Melendez and Januz & Zula Machnowski. While working at the IADB and the World Bank he had the opportunity to acquire and extensive collection of local artists while and meet artists like Fernando Botero and Edgar Negret in Colombia, Salvador Galvez, Elmar Rojas and Rogelio Barillas in Guatemala and Guayasamin in Ecuador. He has also visited multiple times major art museums in New York, Paris, Denver, Auckland, Sydney, Madrid, San Francisco, Caracas, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Washington D.C.
Early in his career he developed an interest in theatre. He participated in the Universidad Simon Bolivar theatre group having the opportunity to learn from Gustavo Rodriguez and Asdrubal Melendez. He got interested in scenography and lighting design. He participated in the design and execution of scenography and lighting for several Bertold Bretch plays: How much is your iron?; Coriolanus; and Mother Courage & their Children, Eugene Ionesco: The Bald Soprano and Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar named Desire. Later he got involved in the commercial productions of Gospel and Caracas Urgente with Levy Rossell, Bertold Bretch: The three Penny Opera directed by Herman Lejter at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and Jose Ignacio Cabrujas: Antologia del Despecho with Pedro Leon Zapata.
He moved to the United States in 1984 to attend graduate school. He went on to obtain degrees from George Mason University, Harvard and North Carolina State University. He has worked both in the private sector (DL&P Architects, ISTI, CARANA, and SEAGULLQUEST) and international public sector in the Washington Metropolitan Area (USAID, Interamerican Development Bank - IADB, and the World Bank). At that time, he actively curated expositions for the IADB galleries and advised on Latin American art at the Smithsonian. He restored multiple art works from US & Latin American artists and started exploring new venues and techniques to further develop his obsession for art. In 2008, he moved to the Northern Neck in Virginia where he pursued his passion for sailing and regattas. While in Virginia he started to systematically study and develop the kinetic techniques he applies today. He settled in Parkland, FL in early 2020, and now dedicates himself entirely to artistic pursuits and restoration.
