Artist Statement

As someone who is perpetually planning for the future, purposeful storytelling keeps me grounded in the present. They focus me to be receptive to my internal and external environment, able to learn new lessons, and appreciate another life well lived. By tapping into a (somewhat) alarming breadth of experiences I create paintings that convey an unexpected kinship between unrelated subjects to tell a tale. This provides a tangible stepping stone to push at the audience’s realm of possibility, allowing them to escape their own perspectives and understand an alternative. It is my firm belief that anyone who is open to the other people and worlds around them serve as the basis for impactful, engaging adventures that deserve to be told.

My process begins with a story - sometimes fondly retold from a wistful relative, sometimes consoling a demoralized friend, or even sometimes felt while snowboarding off a cliff. Inspiration comes easily if I listen well. Vivid imagery is distilled down to key representational elements that are then crafted to fantastical painting standards. Cavalierly and wholeheartedly drawn into new escapades, I explore how to better draw people together through surprising commonalities across disparate disciplines.

Current personal work studies the relationships involved during the biotechnology drug development process, drawing upon his previous life as an immuno-oncology scientist.

Artist Bio

Jonathan Soriano grew up in New Jersey, USA born in 1988 to Filipino immigrants. While he developed an affinity for art in high school, his parents’ medical and veterinary influences led him to his first wonderful life adventures in biotechnology and drug discovery. After 12 scientist and management-focused years building immuno-oncology therapeutics through protein engineering and gene editing, in 2024 the stars aligned for the chance to pursue his formative passion for art. Having learned that moderation is not his strong suit, Jonathan seized this opportunity to trade the pipette for the paintbrush.

Jonathan lives in Boston, MA currently studying at the Academy of Realist Art Boston, using this second chapter of his life to develop the artistic skills to support impactful stories. His childhood work is cherished by his family but his emerging fundamental work has been taken by private companies in MA.

Education

Academy of Realist Art Boston (2024 - current)
Boston University, Masters of Arts in Medical Sciences (2012)
Tufts University, Bachelors of Science in Biology (2010)

Publications and Presentations

  • Peptide‑HLA‑based immunotherapeutics platforms for direct modulation of antigen‑specific T cells (Nature Portfolio, Scientific Reports · Sep 2021)

  • CUE-101, a novel HPV16 E7 pHLA-IL2-Fc fusion protein, enhances tumor antigen specific T cell activation for the treatment of HPV16-driven malignancies - (Clinical Cancer Research · Jan 2020)

  • A novel engineered fusion protein effectively targets and expands disease-specific anti-tumor T cells - (The Essential Protein Engineering & Cell Therapy Summit Boston · Apr 2019)

  • The emerging contribution of social wasps to grape rot disease ecology - (Peer Journal · Apr 2017)

  • Actinomycetes with antimicrobial activity isolated from paper wasp (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae) nests - (Environmental Entomology · Jan 2013)

Soriano 2005