Location: United States
Mauricio Porto is a Brazilian painter and graphic designer living in New York. He has loved drawing since his childhood in Brazil. Porto received the greatest encouragement from his mother, who enrolled him in art classes with a local artist in his hometown when he was 16.
Porto developed a figurative style under a colorful concept, with a visible influence of Pop Art. The selection of themes goes from portraits of celebrities to anonymous people, always looking at the camera in expressive poses. The compositions are created with both digital and hand-drawn sketches, mixing elements such as flowers, fruits, birds, or thematic subjects. The use of customized acrylic paints for the backgrounds provides the desired chromatic effect to highlight the faces and figures, skillfully portrayed in oil. Pop culture icons and personalities such as Carmen Miranda, one of South America’s icons, are readily explored in his large-scale canvases. With exhibitions dedicated to her image, Mauricio Porto’s Miranda portraits have become both commercial success and critical praise.
Born on February 10, 1964, in the town of Elói Mendes, Brazil. Porto has a Bachelor’s in Marketing and Advertising from Rio de Janeiro. As a creative director in the advertising industry, he designed billboards, posters, magazine ads, and brochures for big companies and theater plays in Rio. In the end, it all came together towards his art, as he says in his artist statement: “I started sipping from the advertising world. The inspiration for my paintings started to come from magazine covers, ads, movies, the fashion world, and all sorts of media.”
As an excellent aquarian, Porto loves culture and technology. Music is also a source of inspiration as he paints, listening to an eclectic playlist to bring an uplifting spirit to his creations. “I think the world is surrounded by too much pain; a piece of art must bring a positive vibration. Art must brighten the spectator’s emotions.” Porto says.
With many solo exhibitions and group shows in Brazil and abroad, Mauricio Porto has had a successful career as a painter for more than four decades.
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