Paul Sierra

Achilles and Cerberus, oil on canvas, 38″ x 49″, 2013

Arroyo, oil on canvas, 37″ x 62″, 2013

Creator, oil on canvas, 50″ x 54″, 2013

In the Forests of the Night, oil on canvas, 60″ x 80″, 2012

Small Glory, oil on canvas, 28″ x 50″, 2013

Hard Rain, oil on canvas, 28″ x 22″, 2013

Inhabitants, oil on canvas, 42″ x 60″, 2012

Winter Landscape, oil on canvas, 42″ x 60″, 2012

Artist Statement

Because I was born in Cuba and have lived most of my adult life in the United States, my artistic and emotional links to my Latin roots are intertwined with influences from North American art and culture.

Art provides a means for leaving the past behind and not getting lost in the limbo between the old life and the new. Art is of great help to the immigrant, allowing him to transform the chaos of his life in a positive vision.

Art heals the spirit by virtue of the creative act, which helps us to find a new identity in our memories and myths. The act of painting becomes the act of memory, a line drawn from the present to the past and back again, establishing identity as a person.

We seek continuity in the face of disjuncture. And we find it by making ourselves the hero of our own personal odyssey.

About the Artist

Paul Sierra was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1944. Growing up in Cuba, he wanted to be a filmmaker; however, after immigrating to the United States as a teenager, he realized that painting was the more feasible ambition and enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Paul Sierra is now recognized as one of this country’s preeminent Hispanic contemporary artists.

A painter of lushly colored canvases that often depict symbolic landscapes, self-portraits, or interiors, Paul Sierra takes as his themes Greek mythology, the exploration of we humans’ most discordant psychological states, and his own personal life’s journey as an artist.

Paul Sierra has had more than 60 solo exhibitions in the last 12 years. His work, which also has been shown in many group and traveling exhibitions, has been acquired for numerous significant public art collections, including those of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Snite Museum of Art at Notre Dame University. 

Paul Sierra Website

Paul Sierra on Facebook 

Interview with Paul Sierra at ChicagoArts (Video)