Juan Calzadilla (Altagracia de Orituco, Venezuela, 1931) is a paradigm of the complete artist. His work includes poetry, narrative, essay, the visual arts, art criticism, journalism, translation, and editing. He was co-founder in 1961 of the revolutionary cultural movement El Techo de la Ballena [The Whale's Roof], and in 1984, of the prestigious journal of arts and literature, Imagen. For his work as a sketcher and painter he received Venezuela's National Prize for the Visual Arts in 1996. His constant poetic production, which began in 1954 with Primeros poemas, includes more than twenty fundamental titles. With intellectual discernment, he vehemently seeks to dissolve the subject, create a more stripped-down language, and to participate as well as represent.