Mauro Murillo

Mauro Murillo was born in Coahuila, Mexico and moved to San Antonio, TX in 1995. During high school, he enjoyed the SaySí art program where he explored creating art in different mediums including graphite, charcoal, aluminum, paper maché, papel picado, and others. While Murillo was pursuing an Associates degree in Communication Design at San Antonio College, he began to shift his focus more toward the fine arts, especially because of a particular drawing class where he was inspired to consider art as a career. After graduating early 2020, his passion for art strengthened as he started painting with acrylics on canvas. Murillo had his first solo show, Personajes Mexicanos, in 2021. His work has been exhibited at UNAM San Antonio TX, Mexican Cultural Institute San Antonio TX, Instituto de Cultura Hispanica Corpus Christi TX, and The Union Houston,TX.

I paint iconic figures from the Mexican Revolution, the Golden Age of Cinema, and other subjects from within Mexican culture. My inspiration for painting these themes comes from when I was a young child watching black and white Mexican films at my grandparents’ home, and hearing both of my grandfathers enthusiastically talk to me about the Mexican Revolution. The intention of my work is not only to embrace and appreciate our culture but also to invoke the sense of nostalgia and memory in the viewer.

I paint mostly large canvases, beginning them by smearing colors on the canvas. Once that first layer dries, I then paint the subject matter, allowing the smeared colors to help me decide my palate choice. Because many of the source images I use are black and white, it allows me to paint with many color combinations. I am devoted to working with acrylic paint because I love the results it gives me. The fact that acrylic dries so quickly pressures me to paint fast, encouraging my brush strokes to be intuitive and expressive.