Born on December 22, 1978 in Ciudad Sahagun in the State of Hidalgo, Mexico, Elton Monroy Duran is a prominent visual artist known for his own style of artwork. As a kid, Elton spent most of his childhood in the city of Tula Hidalgo at his paternal family home where he developed interest in painting and drawing.
Duran has always been passionate about painting and drawing which he saw and experienced around and cultivated, which was the first step towards a successful career as a renowned artist. A lot of his early artwork has local Mexican colors and textures, but it has a blend of his own identity and style which is unmatched.
He later completed his Bachelors in Visual Arts with a major in Fine Arts from the School of Fine Arts at the University of the State of Queretaro (1998 – 2003). His work speaks a lot about his personality and Duran believes that he is a humanist artist with scientific and sociological approaches. Most of the artwork done by him focuses on importance of reflections and the importance of elements like tears, joy, laughter, pain and evil that constitutes life combined altogether. He became popular with his series ‘Corpus’ in 2012, using elements of American culture to connect human physical makeup as well as the value of the human body.
This year, Elton Monroy Duran participated in ArtPrize, a radically open, independent organized international art competition that brings together unorthodox, highly disruptive and intriguing artwork from around the globe. He created ‘The Blanket of Sweet Dreams’, an 8ft by 20ft masterpiece that can be found at the DeVos Place. This magnificent large painting focuses on the importance of dreams and wishes that children dealing with tissue, organ and eye transplants have. The painting also incorporates real feelings that connect with real people dealing with such circumstances. This visually and emotionally moving artwork focusing on improving the quality of life of children that need more donors for transplants.
Duran is currently working on his upcoming artwork for Lindo Mexico Restaurant, one of the most popular restaurants in Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Michigan. He has also won a prize to paint 6 murals in Detroit, Michigan. The overall cost of the project is estimated around $60,000 with Night Foundation contributing half the cost. Elton Monroy Duran has a dream to paint a mural in Grand Rapids, Chicago and New York each in the future. If you like his artwork and would like to support him, you can donate at GoFundMe.com website.
