Tomas Carranza

El Salvador, 1974

Tomás Carranza (El Salvador, 1974) is a contemporary artist whose work weaves together memory, materiality, and imagination into a distinct and introspective visual language. Deeply influenced by his surroundings, life experiences, and the natural world, Carranza creates artworks that transport viewers into surreal, dreamlike realms where the abstract and the symbolic converge. A master of technique, Carranza employs a diverse range of materials—acrylic, pencil, gold leaf, silver leaf, textiles, and threads—allowing each medium to contribute its own voice to the overall composition. His meticulous craftsmanship enables him to explore rich textures and visual effects, enhancing the emotional and conceptual depth of his pieces. Carranza’s canvases often depict ethereal, otherworldly scenes populated by recurring symbolic elements such as eyes, gears, paper boats, and airplanes. These motifs, at once whimsical and profound, are subtly integrated and sometimes hidden within the composition—revealing themselves only to the attentive viewer. In this way, each artwork becomes a space of discovery, where hidden meanings and personal interpretations unfold through close observation. His recent exhibitions, including The Threads of Time (2023) and Textures in Time, demonstrate a deepening of his artistic language. In these bodies of work, Carranza extends his exploration of layered existence—blending the symbolic resonance of metallic leaf with the warmth and heritage of Central American textiles. By incorporating tufting and punch needle techniques, he honors traditional weaving practices while embedding his work with themes of continuity, movement, and transformation. Paper boats and airplanes, floating gently across his surfaces, become emblems of memory, longing, and the passage of time. They invite viewers to reflect on their own journeys—carried forward by invisible currents, as we all are. For Carranza, life is not linear. It is layered, textured, and constantly evolving—like memory, like time, like painting itself. Through his art, he offers viewers an open invitation to enter that layered world and to discover, within it, traces of their own.