Artist, Entrepreneur and Cultural Promoter  (Guatemala, 1982)

JJ Estrada is a Guatemalan multidisciplinary artist, entrepreneur, and cultural promoter whose practice has unfolded for almost two decades at the intersection of image, territory, and reflection on contemporary life. He began his art studies in 2005 in Guatemala and later continued them in Barcelona, where he found in photography a language that let him pose questions about landscape, memory, and the technologies through which we live in the present.

His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Guatemala, Spain, France, Mexico, and the United States, and at international contemporary art fairs such as Zona Maco and Art Paris. In 2021 he was selected as artist-in-residence at El Ganzo in Los Cabos, an experience that broadened the geographic and conceptual scope of his recent work.

Alongside his own practice, Estrada has played a central role in building Guatemala’s photography scene. He is co-founder of La Fototeca, a center for contemporary photography, and of the GuatePhoto International Photography Festival. These platforms have graduated more than 4,000 students and have helped professionalize Central American art and photography and bring it to international audiences. He has served as a juror for international competitions and reviews such as GuatePhoto Festival, Photoville, Photolucida Critical Mass, and Houston FotoFest.

Estrada holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University (United States), where he also played on the university baseball team, and a Master’s in Finance from EADA Business School (Spain). This dual background in art and finance gives him a distinctive perspective, combining aesthetic sensibility with a structural understanding of the cultural ecosystems he helps drive and is part of.