“I was Born and raised in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago to Mexican immigrant parents, I grew up alongside two sisters and an older brother.

I am a self-taught painter, muralist, and printmaker, and I was also formally trained at Columbia College Chicago earning a B.A. in Graphic Design.

I find inspiration in everyday life situations and strive to incorporate topics that are central to my culture and environment. Themes include music, social issues, poverty, violence, sex, and graffiti with a central focus on the people around me and my community. My work has been influenced by various artists, among them the work of Jose Guadalupe Posada, Leopoldo Mendez, Elizabeth Catlett, and the graphic artist, muralist and political activist Carlos Cortez.

Printmaking is my preferred media, and wood blocks would have to be my preferred material to carve and ink. I continue to challenge ideas that are backward thinking and a menace to a healthy society by creating prints that question these thoughts.”

Antonio Pazarán 

Instituto Grafico de Chicago, Inc. 2012 – Present

Antonio is a founding member of the print collective Instituto Gráfico de Chicago; a collective established with fellow ink slingers /block carvers. The mission of IGC is to promote and preserve the art of printmaking as well as to fulfill the needs of Latinx graphic artists that have been underrepresented in the world of print.