Alumni Profile - Dr. Myron Laban

Pharmacist and Muralist Dr. Myron Laban Offers Healing through Art

For Dr. Myron Laban, art and pharmacy share at least one core value: empathy. The 2018 PharmD graduate aims to embody that value in both his work as a Walgreens pharmacist and his uplifting murals.

Chosen by the Chicago Reader as the Best New Visual Artist in 2017, Laban was also recently featured in a PBS segment about his life-affirming pieces. In April 2020, shortly after shelter-in-place guidelines hit Chicago, Laban finished the second of his “You Deserve to Be Happy” murals. PBS wanted to share the message with a stressed-out city.

“Some people . . . are not necessarily in a place where they experience joy," Laban told PBS. “This is just a gentle reminder that, hey, you do deserve to be happy.”

The West Side piece joins Laban’s original “You Deserve to Be Happy” mural in Bucktown. Both center on the titular phrase amid Laban’s signature Uplift characters. These colorful figures, often portrayed with one person lofted atop another’s shoulders, also appear in Laban’s paintings, prints, and merchandise.

They represent his outlook on life, he said. “It’s this idea of perseverance and continuing to move through your struggle and have an optimistic outlook. Because eventually, things will get better.”

DR. MYRON LABAN · PHARMD ’18

Laban’s other major art project brings empathy to the forefront. Called the CTA Project, the effort pairs paintings of strangers on the El with audio interviews with each one. That all comes together in short films made with a collaborator. Laban’s completed the project three times.

“The whole purpose is to appreciate that the people in front of you are people,” he told WGN in 2018. “These strangers have stories, and they’re just as complex as you.”

Drawing inspiration from Chicago street artists like Sentrock and J.C. Rivera, Laban calls himself semiformally taught. While he doesn’t have an art degree, he did sit in some art classes while completing pharmacy prerequisites at UIC. And even during his PharmD, Laban continued to paint and draw, host art shows, and pursue his craft.

Studying at a school as diverse as UIC, Laban added, did more than train him well in pharmacy—with some time left over for art. It also taught him to empathize with a wide range of people.

“Going to UIC allowed me to appreciate the diversity in the world. It gave me an education in life,” he said. “So I take that with me wherever I go, whether I’m working in the pharmacy or I’m making art.”