About

 

 

Born in Colombia in 1963, Mauricio Forero began his art career while at business school in Bogota.  He studied screen and printing while doing freelance drawing for Leo Burnett in national advertising campaigns.  He then moved on to Sears Roebuck’s publicity department as their residential artist for in-store copy, a talent he later used for Santillana Press and Harcourt Brace to illustrate the children’s books Song of the Gecko and When My Papa Comes Home.  Mauricio also created posters for Harcourt Brace’s Latino poetry series.  This collection was used in bilingual education textbooks throughout the southwestern U.S.

Arriving in the States in 1990, Mauricio showed his work in such galleries as El Taller of Austin, and Dagen Bella in San Antonio.  His first solo exhibit was in Fort Worth in 1995 at Magnolia Gallery where he gained critical acclaim by the Fort Worth Star Telegram.  Mauricio later moved to Chicago, showing at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Thomas Whittlesey Leavitt, founding director of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, in a personal letter to Mauricio called his work “skillful and imaginative, really quite remarkable for someone at the beginning of his career, and I look forward to seeing your work prominently displayed one day in a major museum.”

From February to April of this year, Mauricio showed The Uncounted, a body of installations in 7 SHOWpod spaces in Chicago’s Pilsen District.  In April, Mauricio exhibited at the University of Chicago’s Southside Hub of Production alongside artists such as Dan Peterman.

Mauricio is a father of four, and works in his studio near Chicago, IL.