David Antonio Cruz is an interdisciplinary artist whose work bridges painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance. Known for his richly layered, psychologically charged figurative paintings, Cruz’s practice centers Black, brown, and queer communities, merging personal narrative with art historical, literary, fashion, and pop culture references to reinterpret classical modes of representation. His work challenges dominant cultural narratives and reclaims space for diasporic and queer identities through acts of visibility, embodiment, and resistance.
Born and raised in North Philadelphia to parents who migrated from Humacao, Puerto Rico, Cruz embraces a sense of home that transcends geography. For him, home is not defined by location, but by community, chosen family, and the emotional landscapes built with those one loves. This expansive understanding of belonging threads through his work, particularly in his recent explorations of sites in Philadelphia that carry personal and ancestral resonance. Deeply influenced by the complexities of cultural identity, migration, and queerness, Cruz fuses abstraction and figuration with performance, costume, and sound to create immersive, emotionally charged worlds. Posing, in many of his stylized and dreamlike compositions, becomes an act of resistance, play, and affirmation—as seen in works such as Puerto Rican Pieta, where he reimagines the Catholic iconography of the Pietà by depicting himself and his mother. His celebrated series When the Children Come Home features both monumental portraits and intricately detailed drawings that camouflage the figure within ancestrally significant backgrounds. These works deepen Cruz’s exploration of home as a concept shaped by diaspora, autobiography, LGBTQ+ culture, and memory.
Cruz (b.1974, Philadelphia, PA) received his BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute, NY, and his MFA from Yale University, CT. He attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and completed the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum, New York. Recent solo exhibitions include stay, take your time, my love, at ICA San Franciso, CA (2025); haunt me, at the Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC (2025); when the children come home, which debuted at the ICA Philadelphia, PA (2023) and traveled to the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, New York, NY (2024); Galleria Poggiali, Florence, IT (2023); and moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL (2024, 2021, 2019). Cruz’s work has been widely exhibited in group exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; ICA Boston, MA; Brooklyn Museum, NY; Newark Museum of Art, NJ; Zuckerman Museum, Atlanta, GA; El Museo del Barrio, NY; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum for the New England Triennial, Lincoln, MA; The Block Museum at Northwestern, Evanston, IL; McNay Museum, San Antonio, TX. Cruz’s work is included in several Latinx-focused exhibitions including El Vaivén: 21st Century Art of Puerto Rico and its Diaspora at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, MN (2025); and Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way, Buffalo AKG, NY (forthcoming, 2026). Cruz will present a solo exhibition at Wave Wave Hill Museum, Bronx, NY (2026).
His work is in the collections of the Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; El Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; 21c Museum Hotels, Louisville, KY; Pierce & Hill Harper Arts Foundation, Detroit, MI; Tufts University, Medford, MA; The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK; and Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX. Recent residencies and fellowships include Joan Mitchell Artist-in-Residence, New Orleans, LA (2025); Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO (2025; 2024); Villa Bergerie Art Residency, Laguarres, Spain (2023); the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Award (2018); Neubauer Faculty Fellowship, Tufts University, Boston (2018); BRIC Workspace Residency, Brooklyn (2018); Gateway Project Spaces, Newark, NJ (2016); and the LMCC Workspace Residency, New York (2015). Cruz is a 2024 Outwin Boochever National Portrait Competition prize winner. Cruz lives and works in New York City, where he is the Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University.