Adrian Tio
Adrian Tio
The artist was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to parents who had emigrated from the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico. Tió received his fine arts training from Temple University (B.A. 1974), the Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy (Post-Baccalaureate Study 1975-76) and the University of Cincinnati (M.F.A. 1979). The artist has exhibited nationally as well as regionally in drawing, painting, and printmaking for over 40 years, and has conducted workshops on mural painting, papermaking, and the book arts. Tió has received recognition for his work through exhibition awards and creative research grants from Arts Midwest/NEA, Indiana Arts Commission, Indiana State University Arts Endowment, Ohio Arts Council, New Forms Regional Grant Program, Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, and Bowling Green State University.
I have always felt torn between two cultures; the suburban middle-class objectivity of my American birth, and the passionate sensitivity of my Latino heritage. I am of direct Puerto Rican decent, but was born in the Mid-West, and have never lived extensively in Puerto Rico. Although there are still a number of relatives in Puerto Rico, (the Diaz side of the family), my infrequent contacts are with the stateside kin (the Tió side). Most of my life has been spent in middle-class America; the suburbs are my barrio, and English is my language. Without an ability to communicate in Spanish as well, I have become culturally shy of my own ethnicity. Rather than the ideal acculturation that many minorities seek, I have become fully enculturated.
