Juan González (January 12, 1942 – December 24, 1993) was an important twentieth-century Cuban-American painter who rose to international fame in the 1970s and remained active until his death in the 1990s.

Born in Cuba, González launched his art career in South Florida during the early 1970s and quickly gained recognition in New York City, where he subsequently relocated in 1972.

[6] Concurrent to the Whitney Annual, González participated in the Lowe Art Museum's nationally publicized Phase of New Realism exhibition that February, cementing his association with the emerging hyperrealism movement.

Shortly afterward, González made arrangements to permanently relocate to New York City and have the Permuys assume the lease of his art studio.

[12] Throughout the rest of his career, González would continue to see his profile rise as he participated in several traveling solo and group exhibitions, win prestigious awards, and have his works added to the permanent collection of renown institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The show was noteworthy due to both artists being by that point firmly established Cuban art figures as well as sharing a common background in Miami as the springboard for their later success.

[14] González also remained connected with his ex-wife, Josefina Camacho, her second husband Marcos Pinedo, and Marta Permuy who had each become major fine art collectors and dealers in the region.

[15] The Pinedos would often represent González in South Florida and through them he participated in the landmark 1983 "Miami Generation" exhibition which gave that group of Cuban artists their name and helped solidify the region's growing status in international fine art.

[12] Later in the decade he exhibited in the Pratt Institute (1988–89) and designed elaborate sets in New York for two productions of plays by famed Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, "Blood Wedding" (1988) and "As Soon as Five Years Pass" (1991).

[3] Early in his career González was influenced by Pop artists David Hockney and James Rosenquist as well as the Renaissance and Baroque periods while he developed his highly personal representational-figurative style in direct opposition to the then-contemporary dominance of the Minimalism movement.

[3] Throughout his career, González' themes and subject matter included religion,[23] reinterpreted scenes from art history, portraits of family and friends, and psychologically introspective expressions of identity (via self-portraits) and his struggle with AIDS.