Born in 1966, the youngest of three children, Miguel Paredes grew up in the Upper West side of Manhattan’s 73rd Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus, where the tar and concrete urban playgrounds of Central Park, Lincoln Center, the Bronx and the lower east side were also home to the vibrant Hip-hop and break dance revolutions of the times. A precocious talent, Miguel began painting at a very early age. Surrounded by the paintings and drawings that his father collected of Dali, Miró, Magritte and Calder, Miguel’s private world was a place he absorbed books of paintings and artist biographies; not to mention the other cultural mediums first born the same year he was: The Green Hornet, Archie Comics, Batman, and Godzilla.

The early 1980’s in New York City were exciting times for a young artist who later enrolled at the prestigious Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music and Art. The so-called underground art movements of the mid 1970’s and mid 1980’s were far from underground in Paredes’ world. The impact of artists like Warhol and Haring, the short-lived but powerful world of graffiti art, and even the early roots of Low Bro were the daily conventions of junior high school style and attitude. In this world art was displayed to reach as many eyes in as many places as possible and the young Paredes embraced the force and exuberance of a new language...

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