John Miranda (born 1979, Del Rio, TX) is a Fort Worth-based, Chicano painter. He received his BFA in Painting from the University of Texas at Arlington (2016) and his MFA in Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Tyler (2020). Miranda’s artistic practice draws on his experience growing up on the Texas-Mexico border, referencing Chicano vernacular aesthetics from Barrio art, Mexican folk art and the surrounding environment.
'My work explores the landscapes—both physical and cultural—that have shaped my identity. Working primarily in encaustic, I use layers of wax, pigment, and embedded materials to mirror the complexity of navigating a life lived between rural roots and urban experience. These paintings are built from memory as much as from observation, drawing on the textures, colors, and symbols that defined my upbringing.
Growing up in a rural environment, everyday objects carried a quiet significance: a worn tool, a roadside shrine, a scrap of fabric, a familiar pattern. In my current work, I recreate and reinterpret these found objects from childhood, embedding them as fragments within the painted surface. They serve as anchors—reminders of where I come from—while the surrounding compositions evoke the shifting, sometimes disorienting spaces of city life.
Influenced by Chicano art traditions, my visual language blends cultural symbolism with personal narrative. Patterns, icons, and motifs emerge through the wax like memories resurfacing. Each piece seeks to reconcile the tension between belonging and displacement, heritage and adaptation, past landscapes and present ones.
Ultimately, these works are meditations on identity—how it is carried, reshaped, and continually negotiated across the changing terrains of home, culture, and self.'
