Born in Kentucky, raised in Ohio, and currently residing in Iowa City, Iowa, Agran is interested in the Midwest –for both its charms as well as its challenges. He is particularly dedicated to the Midwestern landscape, its total transformation through agriculture, and the political, social, and environmental consequences of that change. Agran has taught painting and drawing at the university level since 2011 and worked for 3 years as the Director of Public Art for the Iowa City Downtown District. In addition to his studio work, he has designed, executed, managed, and mentored dozens of mural projects – from private commissions to large municipal scale work in historically sensitive areas to community engaged and participatory mural and public art projects. In addition to his studio practice, mural work, and teaching, Agran also works as a consultant for murals and other public art projects and programs. The projects most dear to Agran diverge from the more prevalent commercial language and goals of “placemaking” and instead focus on formal qualities of painting like surface, texture, color, gesture, edge quality, and mark-making, in ways that marry his studio work and public work – with an aim to make access to art more democratic and equitable.