At 17, Victor Luis Garcia sharing his passion for art with students, Art Institute patrons

Sun-Times

Horror, sci-fi and surrealism are what really make Victor Luis Garcia tick. The imaginative 17-year-old Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) senior and Chicago Scholars participant loves creatures that are not of this world — and bringing them to life.

“Growing up watching cartoons and appreciating animals and learning about how they evolve, I was always really inspired by that,” says Garcia, who in particular likes to cross-morph real creatures — like combining the giant form of a bear with the tentacles of an octopus — to create something new.

Though he started taking an interest in drawing when he was in seventh grade, it’s ChiArts where Garcia has really blossomed and explored ideas for graphic novels, illustration and storyboarding. His current course load includes an AP Visual Communications class, a sequential arts class, a digital media class and a professional development class as he prepares to head off to college with the help of the Chicago Scholars program, a seven-year success model that helps financially under-resourced students get enrolled into four-year institutes of higher learning.

“Growing up knowing I was bisexual, I was hiding that part of my life, but as I got older and finding ChiArts to be a very diverse place, I got to appreciate myself more,” says Chicago High School for the Arts senior Victor Luis Garcia.

Garcia is considering schools across the country such as the Savannah College of Art and Design and Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, but he is tempted to stay closer to home where resources like Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute Chicago exist — as well as plenty of everyday source material to keep him inspired.

“I never really used Chicago art museums as a resource but now I realize that was a big mistake, especially since there’s free admission, which is great for kids,” says Garcia, who also enjoys Lincoln Park Zoo and the Shedd Aquarium for his creature studies. “Now I totally recommend anybody who enjoys art to go to museums to be inspired by works from different eras and cultures.”

Allstate Star and artist Victor Luis Garcia finds inspiration in the world around him.

Garcia is currently working with the Art Institute of Chicago, expanding on a yearlong internship program through a partnership with the nonprofit Marwen that invites six high school students to work in the museum’s Department of Learning and Public Engagement department, where they help support programs for youth, teens and families. Garcia has been able to lead art-making activities, studio programs and workshops and create his own gallery tours.

“I love being able to incorporate my own passion for art and share it with visitors at the museum,” says Garcia, who can often be found visiting the works of surrealist painters Salvador Dali or Ivan Albright in his downtime.

Victor Luis Garcia leads one of his personally crafted gallery tours at the Art Institute.

The first tour he created was a trip to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s creature-filled “Apparitions of the Seven Deadly Sins” painting. “I wanted to somehow engage my audience in thinking about the seven deadly sins and how something like lust is personified. The main question I asked was, ‘If you could create an eighth deadly sin what would it be and what would it look like?’ People had sticky notes and drew what they thought and then put it on a board that slowly filled up. And it was great to see all the ideas.”

Melissa Tanner, Managing Educator, Family Engagement, at the Art Institute of Chicago says, “Victor has already taught me so much in the short time we have worked together, and I’m always excited to see what he dreams up. He brings a genuine curiosity, thoughtfulness and generosity to all situations, and his energetic spirit is contagious, whether he is engaging with young children, his peers or senior staff at the museum. By always being true to himself, Victor encourages others to be themselves. It is a real gift to make others feel so welcomed.”

She adds, “Victor speaks passionately about his journey as an artist and how he sees his work as a catalyst for social conversations around identity, equity, and inclusion.”

Fantastical beats permeate the artwork of Victor Luis Garcia.

For Garcia, who was raised in the Ashburn neighborhood in a family of devout Catholic Mexican-Americans, that didn’t always come easy.

“I am a Mexican queer man and that is a big part of who I am, but it was always two cultures contradicting each other,” he says. “Growing up knowing I was bisexual, I was hiding that part of my life, but as I got older and finding ChiArts to be a very diverse place, I got to appreciate myself more.”

His experience has inspired much of Garcia’s recent work as well; he’s working on a children’s book about coming out that’s full of “Monsters Inc.”-like characters. “I feel like if there was more proper representation in the media I probably wouldn’t have had such a difficult time growing up and coming out. I want to give that resource to anyone else who needs it.”

Open, safe space is one of the things Garcia loves most about art studies.

“Through my internship I’ve learned a lot about allowing younger audiences to guide themselves; we talk a lot about how art is a place to play,” he says. “Seeing discussions in our group among people [who] don’t know each other is really rewarding, too, especially when you can see how they influence each other. As an artist it’s really great to see these connections and the memories people are making.”

This profile is part of a series made possible by Allstate as part of its commitment to support young artists in Chicago and to empower the next generation of rising stars.

Selena Fragassi is a local freelance writer.