Second Sunday Arts: Thiago Porraz

A virtual monthly event where we showcase the works of a single artist, followed by an engaging open Q&A session.

Artist bio:

Thiago Porraz is a trans, queer, Latino artist living and working in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He began his artistic education with two years of courses at Michigan State University and a semester at Kendall College of Art and Design before deciding to continue building his artistic skills as a self-taught artist. While his foremost passion is acrylic painting, he enjoys working in many mediums including colored pencil, ink, and gouache. Much of his work gravitates toward themes of his lived experiences of queerness and trauma, as well as nature and the cycle of life and death. 

Artist statement:

Acrylic painting, to me, is a vessel for expressing the things I cannot put into words. Having lived most of my life with an undiagnosed anxiety disorder, living through adolescence and early adulthood in an unstable and toxic home environment, and growing up queer and transgender, there have been many experiences I had to keep to myself for years. Whether because of a lack of necessary communication skills, fear of not being understood and accepted, or simply not knowing how to explain the things that were happening to me, I stayed silent about my own struggles for the first twenty-some years of my life. In adulthood, art has become an outlet for the stories that were trapped inside me for so long.

Countless hours spent drawing and painting in adolescence honed my technical skills to a level where I can now confidently craft any image that I can imagine. This ability has opened up endless possibilities for expressing some of the most difficult, personal experiences I’ve had in my life. Experiences of mental health struggles, gender dysphoria, trauma, and more can now be poured into artworks for others to see and relate to.

INSTAGRAM:  thiagoporraz