Tropicalia
Tropicália
Part of my work had been influenced by my staying in Brazil and the discovery of the Brazilian cultural movement of the 60s known as Tropicália. It is a movement contemporary to the beatnik generation in America and Europe. It interested me the integration of “modern” themes ( for example, in music, the use of electric guitars) with Brazilian folk and tradition, re-inventing folkloric artistic expressions previously considered naff and embarrassing and re-presenting them as integral part of the cultural background of the country.
David Bowie said that a fly in his milk was a foreign body and as such the fly was getting an awful lot of his milk, making a parallel with his staying in America. David Bowie absorbed elements of soul music, and made them his own. My arrival in Brazil had a similar effect on me. Not that I am comparing myself with David Bowie, I am not that vain, but I felt the rituals, the legends, the colours, the spirits of the lands attaching themselves to me and becoming my experience and, like in the Tropicalia movement, I cannibalised this country tradition, fed on it and made it my own flesh and
Il pregiudizio - 2024 Pipa beach, Brazil - oil on canvas - it is a small painting. 30x40cm - £200.
Painting made in order to take part to an exhibition in Pipa, organised and curated by one of the local artists, Walfran Guedes, who takes charge of many community orientated activities that can spread out interest in art.
The subject of the exhibition was Women. Because I feel involved in the the militant struggle of transgender people are experiencing now, with a strong opposition from the right wing - conservative forces, I wanted to take this opportunity to bring trans women in this show.
Buba meu boi - 2024 Pipa beach Brazil. Oil on canvas - 50x60cm - £250
This is inspired by a folkloristic legend popular in the North-East regions of Brazil, Bahia, Maragnon, Riotrande do Norte. The versions of the story varie according to the locations where the narration takes place, but the essence of the even is are as follows: Farmer’s wife is heavily pregnant. She experiences a craving for bull meat. But not any meat! She craves for the animal’s tongue. The farmer, to please the wife, takes his best dagger and go to kill the most handsome bull in the stable. He pleased his wife, but he is now in serious danger with the Farm owner. He is terrified of receiving such an harsh punishment he won’t easily forget. In a blind panic, eaten away by the remorse, the farmer goes to pray to the Orixas. The Orixisas took pity of this miserable human and they agreed to help him out. At his return to the farm, he will find the bull alive and kicking .
This story is the theme for many festivals and street festivals in the north-east. What I found inspiring my painting is the role of the pregnant wife, who tempt the husband with her desire for some grotesque, decadent and absurd cut of meat and in order to satisfy her appetite he took the risk of offending the Master of the manor.
Bossa Nove 2
Oil on canvas - Pipa , Brazil 3/2023. Cm 40x60 £ 200. The same subject painted one year after. The guitar player looks less young, strong and sexy; he is thinner, older, dryer. Maybe I will change the title of this painting and call it MPB. Not because MPB singers are uglier, but because, as a music, MPB is more political, less sugary than Bosa Nova
Je m'appel Jane - Pippa 2024 - 60x50 cm £300
An omage to the chanteuse Jane Birkin, which I have always admired and I always felt inspired by her
Menino da Pipa - 2/2023 Oil on canvas Cm 60X50
Price £220
A male figure walking in a colourful street.
Us - a self-portrait of Nelson and I . 3/2023 Oil on canvas
Picture is not for sale. Belongs to private collector
The influences of a tropical surrounding
After having start my artistic career strictly in monochrome, using ink on paper for a series of erotic drawing, and developing from that to the use of gloomy colours, I went to the NorthEast of Brazil. Soon after my arrival in Pipa, this small surfers village near Natal, it was unavoidable for my palet to be heavily affected by the environment. In the tropics, light has a blinding quality when the sun is up, bleaching everything toward a sandy white, but, under the first shocking moment of intense brightness, underneath one can perceive the presence of vibrant, intense colours clashing with each other. The most unthinkable juxtaposition of shades are ordinary in the tropics. Sweat, intense smells impregnate the air intoxicating as much as the colours. Sometime so reach that one can sense the imminent on-setting of decomposition. It is inebriating to the point of nausea. The heat is humid and intense, uncomfortable when you arrive from Europe. I was very nervous, afraid not to be able to adapt. Then I went to the beach. Everything made sense then. The heat no longer bothered me. The colours were in harmony, the smells became perfumes. If heaven in on earth, it must be there.
A lush view
