Juan Sanchez was born in Brooklyn, New York from Puerto Rican parents. He majored in Illustration and commercial art at the High School of Art & Design. He earned a Bachelor of Finme Arts degree from The Cooper Union School of Art (1977) and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Mason Gross School of the Arts from Rutgers State University (1980). Juan Sanchez creates mixed medium paintings conbining painting, photography, printmaking, digital process, text and collage. The is conceptually and aesthetically influenced by the graffiti and postered surfaced walls of the New York urban environment he grew up in. Juan Sanchez has exhibited his art in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America. His most recent exhibitions were in 2003, Ricanstructions: A selection of works by Juan Sanchez, Cries & Whispers; New Works by Juan Sanchez at the South Dallas Arts & Culture Center in texas in 2001 and P.S1/MOMA Contemporary Art Center.