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Avraham was born in Managua, Nicaragua in January 1974. In 1977, the Zuniga family along with many other Nicaraguan families faced the threat of the Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas. Avraham’s family decided to leave Nicaraugua and came to Miami in 1977.
Avraham’s early art teachers included his uncle, a commercial artist and master sign maker. He started painting at age 5 with watercolors. In junior high school in Miami, Florida Avraham was exposed to graffiti which has had a significant influence in his work. Avraham looked up to famed New York graffiti artists such as “Seen”. In high school, Avraham was a major artist in commercial murals for high schools, businesses, and the city of Miami. He promoted graffiti in Miami to higher levels by doing legal commissioned works with positive messages and political statements.
After graduating high school, Avraham attended graphic design school at Robert Morgan and Lindsey Hopkins Technical Schools. He worked as a commercial graphic artist with his uncle in a sign shop. During that time, his works began to be incorporate teachings of the Old Testament in the Bible and Rastafarian culture. He continued to study art taking classes in oil painting and still life with local art masters in Miami. During this period, Avraham admired the works of modern masters such as Miro, Matisse and the impressionists such as Van Gogh and Monet.
For Avraham, ancient Judaic culture greatly affects his daily life and art. He uses colors in his art to represent significant religious meanings. To him, there is an ever-present relationship between the teachings of Judaism and current world events. Like many other Latin-American artists, his work has been affected by his immigration from an oppressive government. Nicaragua’s people and landscape continue to move him. He uses his respect for classical painting and experience in commercial art and graffiti to convey his unique message.
Avraham Zuniga can be described as a contemporary Judaic artist whose works resonate by describing natural landscapes, people and the thread of religious teachings between them.
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