Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo uses the human figure as a totemic element of emotion. Ambiguous religious imagery; baroque architecture and landscapes; characters in a violent, active, and unstable universe all represent the subconscious. Often, animalistic imagery exemplifies the duality of a pure soul on one hand and human affliction on the other. His work is a visceral expression of the cathartic and often painful experience of living as a journey from an initial state of "not being" to a final equilibrium state of truly "being."

IntusExternus includes works from the series Pink Narcissus and Cruor-Proelium-Cervus. The series Pink Narcissus explores the self-discovery of a man at the moment in which he sees his own reflected self as a being capable of experiencing both love and ecstasy in their full capacities. The works of Cruor-Proelium-Cervus (Latin for The Blood, The Battle, The Deer) is a continuation of Pink Narcissus and tells the story of the individual's transformation through a rite of passage, wherein The Blood is a representation of life; The Battle, a representation of the personal struggles within an individual's transformation into the purest form of "self," as represented by the character of The Deer.

Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo received his Bachelor's degree at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. He has received two MFA degrees, in Painting and in Sculpture, from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has had numerous exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including shows at the Nielsen Gallery; The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University; the Attleboro Museum; Chazan Gallery, Providence; The Fitchburg Museum; and Cecilia Gonzales Gallery, Lima. He currently teaches at Rhode Island College.