Sergio Cuan is a visual artist who graduated with a BFA in Art and Design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Sergio works professionally as a creative director for a major entertainment company in New York City. A highly multidisciplinary artist, he has worked on a diverse range of projects across the globe which include hotels and resorts, brand identity, consumer products, live events and theme parks. He also has a passion for painting and horticulture alike. Early on he realized that bonsai was the ideal synthesis of both. As a result he became fascinated with bonsai as an art form.

 

Sergio is a largely self taught bonsai artist. However, he has also taken workshops with prominent bonsai masters Bill Valavanis, Mauro Stemberger and Bjorn Bjorholm which he continues to take periodically to further his own bonsai education and skills. Although he works on a variety of conifers such as Engelmann spruce, Subalpine fir and Eastern white cedar, he has developed a particular interest and passion for a wide range of deciduous species which include maples, elm and beech among many others. In 2014 he built a bonsai garden in northern New Jersey in a beautiful setting surrounded by rolling hills, lakes and deciduous forests which continue to influence his work. The garden, inspired primarily by Japanese design aesthetics, features a diverse bonsai collection of species. Recently, Sergio started to conduct virtual consultations, workshops and lectures for groups as well as individuals from his own studio and garden. Sergio believes that bonsai as a true art form holds commonalities with painting, drawing and sculpture. Although the artist is bound by the physical limitations of the plant material itself, bonsai can be effective vehicles for self expression. But unlike other art forms, bonsai is alive and constantly evolving. The bonsai practice is

an intimate and continued dialogue between artist and nature.This relationship

gives bonsai its own unique dimension. Sergio also believes that one must

allow for the tree to help guide us as we strive to evoke a clear and crystalized

expression of nature in its most essential and simplest form.