We recently had the chance to connect with Justin Suico and have shared our conversation below.
Justin, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Lately, running has brought me a quiet kind of joy. It’s become more than movement.. it’s momentum. There’s a rhythm to it that mirrors my creative process: steady, intentional, and introspective. I’m currently training for the Chicago Marathon while raising funds for cancer research, a cause close to my heart. In many ways, it’s given me a deeper sense of purpose outside the studio.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Justin Suico — I’m a Filipino-American artist and founder of Suico Atelier, a Chicago-based studio where visual art and craftsmanship intersect. My work explores the emotional architecture of the human experience: memory, stillness, and intimacy. I’m best known for my layered paintings on plexiglass mounted on abstract canvases, each built to reflect transparency and tension, both physically and psychologically.
What makes my work unique is its evolving language of expression. Alongside my paintings, I handcraft limited-edition leather goods; wallets, bags, and accessories. Each piece designed with the same care and narrative depth as my artwork. Everything is made in Chicago, one layer at a time.
The atelier is more than a brand, it’s an ongoing body of work dedicated to emotional intelligence, craft, and cultural legacy. Whether worn or hung, my goal is to create heirlooms of meaning, pieces that feel as personal as they do timeless.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
Disconnection begins with silence. Not the quiet kind, but the kind filled with misunderstanding, assumption, and absence. We lose each other in the space between what’s felt and what’s expressed. The world often teaches us to hide our tenderness, to armor ourselves in productivity and perfection.
But what restores us, what truly brings people back to one another, is vulnerability. Art has taught me that. A painting, a brushstroke, a hand-stitched wallet all are small invitations to feel again. When something is made with care, it carries intention. And that intention speaks.
My work, everything from the raw textures of leather to the layered surfaces of a painting is designed to slow us down, open us up, and remind us that intimacy is not loud. It’s deliberate. It’s crafted. It’s remembered.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering stripped away the noise. It forced stillness. When everything fell apart, career plans, relationships, my sense of self, I learned how to sit in the quiet and ask harder questions: Who am I without the applause? Without the progress? Without the canvas?
Success can decorate the surface. But suffering reveals the structure. It taught me the value of craftsmanship not just in art, but in self layer by layer, with patience, and without shortcuts. It’s where I discovered that healing isn’t a moment, it’s a process, just like painting, just like stitching leather. You return to it again and again until it finally holds.
That’s the ethos behind the Suico artwork and handmade goods that emerge from the slow, deliberate act of rebuilding. From suffering, I didn’t just find resilience, I found clarity, honesty, and the courage to create from truth instead of ego.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What truths are so foundational in your life that you rarely articulate them?
That stillness is necessary. That beauty is a form of language. That what we create, if it’s honest, outlives us.
I rarely say these things out loud because they’re in everything I do. In the brushstrokes layered under plexiglass. In the hand-stitched edge of a leather wallet. In the silence between colors, textures, and materials. These truths are the scaffolding behind Suico not just a brand, but a philosophy rooted in emotional intelligence, restraint, and timeless craftsmanship.
I believe that the best work doesn’t scream, it invites. It asks you to lean in. To feel. To remember something you forgot you knew.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
I’m doing what I was born to do, because I was given the freedom to find it.
My parents never forced me into a path. They were quiet nurturers of my creative side—guiding without pushing, encouraging without expectation. Their belief in my art made it possible for me to believe in it too.
Now, through my art, I create what feels timeless and intimate. Paintings layered with memory. Leather goods crafted by hand. Each piece is a conversation between legacy and individuality, an act of devotion to detail, emotion, and purpose.
This is not what I was told to do. This is what I was born to make.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.justinsuico.com
- Instagram: justin.suico.art
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