Biography
Isaac Nicholas Caruso (INC) was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1988. He was raised in the Valley of the Sun and attended Thunderbird High School. Here, he found a passion for the visual arts and decided to pursue a degree in Graphic Design. During his first year of college, his paintings were exhibited at the S. Dillon Ripley Center of the Smithsonian through the VSA Arts Driven Competition, where he received the “Award of Excellence” in our nation’s capital. This experience solidified his resolve to become a professional public artist and designer.
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He moved up to Flagstaff to attend the Visual Communication school at Northern Arizona University. He accepted the position of Creative Director at the Lumberjack Newspaper to help pay for his education. After graduating from NAU with his BFA, he began his career as a muralist. This led him all around the world, completing his first residency in Montevideo, Uruguay. He led a community initiative to paint murals throughout the city’s historical quarter, instructing locals even though he spoke little Spanish. From that point on, the universal language of visual communication became a focus in his work.
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In 2017, he won a grant with the Desert Botanical Garden and the National Endowment for the Arts to complete a large-scale mural. This was the catalyst for him to quit his “day job” and become a full-time artist.
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Caruso has also completed residencies with The Arctic Circle, sailing through the glacial fjords of Svalbard in 2017. On board a tall ship, he gained knowledge from geologists, sailors, and other artists that would inform a 50-foot mural that he painted in Downtown Phoenix. This focus on environmentalism extended to a recent residency that the artist experienced in Greer, Arizona, in collaboration with the Arizona Community Foundation Environmental Accelerator. Isaac was selected from a large pool of applicants to join a think-tank of biologists, lawmakers, and community outreach managers to create a piece of art that would inform the public about challenges our local ecology faces. He successfully collaborated with the Cocopah Native American Community in Yuma to create a custom mural with a paint-by-number community collaboration. In 2026, the artist looks forward to attending the FUSION artist residency in Tokyo, Japan, where he will contribute a custom mural to BnA Wall.
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The artist is also a published author. In 2023, he completed his most ambitious project to date, a 54-page children’s book illustrated ENTIRELY with murals across Arizona! This concept is the first of its kind, awarding him the 2023 Artist to Work Grant, the Arizona Commission on the Arts Artist Opportunity Grant, the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona Pivot Award, the City of Phoenix FLASH Grant for District 3, and commissions from Canal Convergence with Scottsdale Public Art. The story follows a young woman who, like the author, is on the ADD/autistic spectrum. She navigates the world of imagination to find a sense of home. Caruso used this opportunity as a platform to reach out to students and teachers through public readings at Arizona libraries, public schools, and the Arizona Teacher Conference.
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He is a CODAsummit award-winning sculptor for his iconic 20x20x7’ piece “Resilient Light” which debuted along the Southern Light Rail extension in January of 2025. Later that year, he was selected to contribute his piece “Wings of Ancestors” to the Multicultural County Park Sculptural Exhibition with the City of Flagstaff. The artist designed and fabricated the piece from reclaimed Ponderosa Pine sourced from the area. His most recent 3D project is a collection of 16 shade structures placed throughout Phoenix’s bus corridor to provide shade for pedestrians, commissioned by the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture.
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A touchstone of Caruso’s artistic practice has always been murals. In 2025 he completed the largest mural in Arizona with fellow artist Evan Hillis. The 746×40′ narrative mural along the Southern facade of Revel Surf is a landmark piece of public art in the Phoenix Mural Community. He specializes in commercial murals, residential murals, interior murals, exterior murals, office art, retail space murals, and restaurant murals. The artist is known for combining a keen eye for realism with an emotional color palette and a touch of street art sensibilities.
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Because of the education he received in graphic design, this artist stands out among his colleagues. He possesses advanced knowledge of print process and digital design programs. This skill set has been critical to initiatives like the screen-printed merchandise collaboration he completed with the Phoenix Suns or the limited-edition poster art run commissioned by Valley Metro. He was very proud to include a lithographic print for the first 150 copies of Sam & Sara sold. The artist designed and produced this artwork.
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Drawing on his extensive experience as a professional artist with a wide range of organizations, Isaac Caruso has overseen the creation of artistic initiatives as an administrator. His Sam & Sara project required him to coordinate 54 murals with local arts organizations, chambers of commerce, and private entities like APS. He has curated outdoor galleries in Downtown Phoenix while successfully raising $50,000 in partnership with APS and the Churchill to provide the artists with a stipend. For Verde at Cooley Station, Caruso partnered with AZing Tours to curate and coordinate one of the most extensive outdoor galleries in the Southwest. Isaac has also helped advise APS on artistic elements for their new Garfield Substation, slated to break ground in the spring of 2026.
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With a blessed and abundant artistic practice, this artist prides himself on his passion to teach. In 2019, the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona hired Caruso to lead a summer-long mural project with six high school students. They met Monday-Friday mornings at the U of A to conceptualize the project and learn public art fundamentals. It resulted in a 25-foot mural along the pool of Palo Verde Park. Since 2020, Isaac has worked with Free Arts to provide arts education for children experiencing trauma of abuse, neglect, or homelessness. Some of these initiatives include being a counselor at art camps, leading a professional artist series in group homes, and speaking at the Resilient Hearts Symposium. He has learned trauma-informed care from his experience with Free Arts and prides himself on being able to instruct in a way that is sensitive to other people’s experiences and needs. Other public speaking engagements include lectures on Augmented Reality at the indigenous-led Cahokia organization, the ASU School of Social Work, and the Gilbert City Hall lecture series.
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His goal as an artist is to bring people together through public art and his broad range of creative interests.
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Artist statement
Hello, my name is Isaac Nicholas Caruso. I am an artist and creative director based in the Southwest with 14 years of professional experience. I create public art to engage and communicate with communities. The imagery I create is powerful and uplifting, aiming to transform my surroundings with positivity. My humble service as an artist is to craft visual narratives that bring people together. I view creating public art as a performance, showing my love for the neighborhoods I work with and striving to involve the community as much as possible in the process. Whether for placemaking, entertainment, or enhancing the urban landscape, I strive to make our world feel more connected through public art.
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My previous clients include:
AARP
APS
Arizona Commission on the Arts
Arizona State University
Arizona Cardinals
The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona
AZ Humanities
Banner Children’s Hospital
Chicanos por la Causa
The City of Tempe
The City of Tucson
The City of Sunrise, Florida
The City of Flagstaff
Coachella
CODAworx
The Desert Botanical Garden
DTPHX organization
The Flaming Lips
Fork and Dagger Hospitality
Free Arts
The Home Depot
INFLUX
lululemon
Mesa Arts Center
METLIFE
The National Endowment for the Arts
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Pedal Haus
Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture
The Phoenix Suns
Phoenix Valley Metro
Pueblo Grande Museum
Roosevelt Row organizatios
SAACA
Safeway
Scottsdale Public Art
Scottsdale Fashion Square
Someburros
Sky Harbor International Airport
Superfly Productions
United Way
University of Arizona
Valley Metro
Z Tejas