Jose Lara is a self-taught abstract/surreal artist who lives in New York City. Born in Guayaquil, Ecuador he came to the US with his family in 1985 when he was only eleven years old. Lara and his brother were raised in the ghetto of the suburbs by a single parent. As a young man in high school, Lara hung out with the wrong crowd and found himself traveling on a bleak path. Fortunately, he met a mentor who changed his life entirely, ultimately leading him down a path that included graduating from college and moving to Manhattan. And while Manhattan became his place of residence, Lara also chose to travel the world. To date, Lara has explored over thirty countries, each of which has nourished his mind and his soul in its own unique way.

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Throughout this transformation, Lara frequented NYC's prestigious museums. He had an appreciation for the art he experienced as he wandered through the vast halls of these institutions, but it wasn't until he was introduced to a paper canvas and acrylic paints that Lara's intimate relationship with art began to take shape. 

 

When Lara first found himself in front of a blank canvas, intimidation crept into his mind and started whispering to him about his lack of experience and art education. However, Lara's bold curiosity strode and silenced these discouraging thoughts. Lara's desire to discover how to blend colors, how to place the paint on the canvas, what it would look like to create art from his own thoughts and dreams and heart, all empowered him to place the paint-filled brush on the canvas for the first time. And as he has continued to bring colors and shapes and imagination to his canvas, Lara found pure joy and absolute freedom. He found home.