Works of art by FilAm artist Luis Caraos to be featured at JFK airport
By Marivir Montebon
New York – The artworks of hyperlocal Filipino American artist Luis Caraos will soon be featured at the John F Kennedy International Airport Terminal 8 in its Seasonal Artist Showcase for 2024. Caraos, a retired registered nurse and architect by profession in Queens, was selected from 200 participants in New York City by the Vaughn Bently Creative, LLC.
Rooftop garden in Forest Hills
His award-winning pieces, which include parks and gardens of Forest Hills, Kissena Park, and Cunningham Park, will be on display for spring 2024 alongside two other local artists at the JFK Terminal 8 for three months.
Caraos recently received a special mention award in the Bayside Historical Society’s Annual Winter Art Show for his oil portraiture of Peonies and Where is Mommy? The exhibit will close on March 3, 2024.
To commemorate International Women’s Month this March 2024, Caraos has shared some of his works of art honoring Filipino women featured in a Conversations with MM (CMM) video. (Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1i0sxnF6Qs)
Caraos, a guest of CMM, said that simultaneously being a full-time artist and a nurse had helped him keep his sanity. “When I am in my studio, I feel energized by the creativity. It’s my form of relaxation.”
Fiesta sa Taal
Born and raised in Tiaong, Quezon, Caraos showed his artistic prowess at a young age. He took up architecture and practiced architectural design in the Philippines and in New York where he relocated and founded a family in 1986.
After recuperating from a work-related injury, Caraos decided to shift careers and studied nursing.
Caraos in his home studio in Jamaica, Queens
Now retired, Caraos has given more attention to his love for visual arts, rendering his appreciation of still life, landscapes, and portraits with social, environmental, and cultural values.
Since his winning streak in the Individual Artist Showcase Competition at the Queensborough Central Public Library in 2002-2003, Caraos has had harvested awards and accolades.
On April 15, 2023, he was the recepient of the First Outstanding University of Santo Tomas Atelier Alumni Honours, from his alma mater, as Designer and Artist Abroad, in Manila, Philippines.
Caraos is known for his masterful display of Philippine history and culture using oil as medium. “I always prefer to use oil because the work lasts for a very long time. It’s a legacy,” he said. #
