BIO
About Jean Carlos Valentin Velilla:
Jean Carlos Valentin Velilla is a Puerto Rican visual artist and doctoral candidate in Art Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). With over a decade of experience teaching visual arts at both the K-12 and university levels across Puerto Rico and the U.S., Jean Carlos’s work explores queer Puerto Rican masculinities through drawing and ethnographic research. His artistic practice is deeply intertwined with his academic exploration of gender, sexuality, and philosophical discussions surrounding the body and teaching as an embodied practice.
Jean Carlos’s courses have primarily focused on visual arts foundations. He has also supervised pre-service art teachers and advised interdisciplinary students, enriching their practices by expanding their content knowledge beyond subjects like engineering and math expertise through visual arts. Recognized for his contributions to both the fine arts and education, Jean Carlos is the 2025-2026 recipient of the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship, an award given to promising arts graduates at a range of well-known universities like UIUC.
Beyond his academic and teaching roles, Jean Carlos has collaborated with organizations like the Instituto de Orientación y Terapia Familiar (INOTEF), where he designed a leadership and art therapy program with social workers and psychologists. He continues to exhibit his work in both academic and public settings, using art as a tool to unravel dialogue, challenge societal norms, and deepen understanding of identity and culture. His work is an example of how art can be a transformative and inclusive medium for engaging in critical conversations about the experiences of queer Puerto Rican men, as well as other important dialogues on identity, history, and culture. Jean Carlos is currently seeking collaborative opportunities and looking to expand his work within higher education.
You can learn more about his work through his website and other socials:
Website: vvportfolio.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jean-valentin-636917b9/
Instagram: instagram.com/cjeanvalentin/