;)
Oswald Restaurant asked Joao to exhibit some of his paintings on their walls. It was an easy decision since they have been a favorite restaurant of joao's for many years, even prior to moving to this new location.
A artist reception will be head this Tuesday the 14th starting at 5:30 PM .
The public and friends are asked to stop in for this event.
Location: 121 Soquel Avenue Santa Cruz, CA 95060
this is their link:
João de Brito, painter, sculptor, artistic gallery director, a California impressionist/figurative artist, known for his use of brilliant color, lush landscapes and character-infused images of every day life. His work has been widely recognized in the U.S. and abroad and his paintings have been described as “exotic, magical, surreal,” with a “magnetic exuberance.”
Born in São Miguel, Azores, Portugal, De Brito grew up in an artistic milieu, surrounded by the natural beauty of the islands which he internalized and later incorporated in his artistic vision. He immigrated as a young man to New England with his family, and from there moved to California, attracted to the splendor of its coast. He studied art in the States and Europe, collaborating with the impressionists William B. Hannum and Mark Geller and the traditionalist master David A. Leffel, among others. His influences include the French fauves, the early Californian impressionists, especially the members of the Society of Six, Selden Gile and August Gay, as well as Armin Hansen, Nathan Oliveira and E. Charlton Fortune. He also cites the Azorean artist Domingos Rebelo and the Portuguese painters Vieira da Silva and Paula Rego as inspirations.
De Brito travels extensively to paint en plein air, and has collaborated with internationally known artists and exhibited his work all over the world. Above all he welcomes the opportunity to interact with diverse people and cultures, to partake in what he calls “the discovery of the every day.” Discovery he then translates into the canvas in his unparalleled way. He is represented by several galleries in California and the East Coast.
The Gone Tomorrow Art Gallery @ Santa Cruz Art Center
From 6PM -9PM
1001 Center Street #suites 6 and 4
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
http://www.firstfridaysantacruz.com/2011/04/goen-tomorrow-art-gallery-joao-de-brito/
Winfield Gallery
Dolores between Ocean & 7th.
Carmel CA 93921
800-289-1950
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 11:38AM | Joao de Brito | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article Gone Tomorrow Art Gallery Opens
The “Gone Tomorrow Art Gallery” first opened in December for 30 days only as a collaboration of three artists, "but after some thought I personally decided to open the gallery to exhibit works of friends and some of my paintings, Marie Meinke Sarni, William B. Hannum, Nathan Oliveira, Arnold Bray... some of these artist are no longer with us," the new location in the Santa Cruz Art Center 1001 Center Street Suite #4 Santa Cruz, CA 95060
for directions please use the link: http://santacruzartcenter.com/directions.html
Exonome: "is a relatively new term which originated in an internet community and seeks
to define/describe an individual who has lived outside his/her homeland, original place,
social group or culture for an extended period of time and “has adapted to the new
surroundings without losing awareness or characteristics of his/her origins.” This
adaptation does not mean one fully blends in with the new reality; yet one has changed
enough to feel somewhat “foreign” in the place of origin. A full return is therefore never
possible. Having wandered about and lived in many different places one can only return
as a new entity. One belongs to nowhere and everywhere. This suspended state, this
nomadic condition – exo (outside) + nome (possible alter. of nomad) – is in many ways
an apt symbol or metaphor for the creative life. The artist is a wayfarer, a nomad, a
citizen of the world. This very unsettling and unsettled state constitutes also
paradoxically a privileged viewpoint from which to see anew, to recreate one’s world."-
- Joao de Brito
Exonome: "é um vocábulo recente que procura definir um indivíduo que tem vivido muito tempo fora do lugar e cultura de origem e que “se adaptou ao novo meio ambiente sem perder características das suas raízes”. Sem se assimilar completamente a uma realidade nova, sente-se um tanto “estrangeiro” na sua terra. Pertence a toda a parte sem pertencer a nenhuma. Esta condição nomádica é uma metáfora apropriada à vida criadora. O artista é um caminhante, um cidadão do mundo com um ponto de vista privilegiado que lhe permite olhar e recrear como pela primeira vez, ultrapassando barreiras artificiais para passar a habitar uma realidade primordial e universal". - Joao de Brito
;)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 10:37AM | Joao de Brito | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article 
Nathan Oliveira (1928-2010)Nathan Oliveira died Saturday at Stanford, California. Oliveira, a great artist of Portuguese-American descent, taught at Stanford for three decades. He was part of a group referred to as the Bay Area Figurative Movement, a group of San Francisco area artists in the 1950s and `60s which influenced artists across the country.
I last saw him earlier this year. He gave a lecture at San Jose State University. There was electricity in the air as students gathered for the lecture. The lecture hall filled to standing room only.
No, the lecture wasn't dynamic. It was intimate and personal. It was as if Oliveira sensed all the insecurities young artists can have, and so was gentle with them but without neglecting to inform them they were entering a tough and competitive world. Oliveira was generally soft spoken, though he could be fiery.
Nancy and I met him a few years ago at an opening in Capitola, California. Oliveira might have sensed we didn't know anyone there, so he spoke to us first. After we got comfortable, which was very easy with him, he pointed to a man across the room.
``Do you see that man? After my wife Mona died, I stopped painting. That man kept knocking on my door and said, `You must not stop. You must paint again.'
``I was very angry with him for a time and I wanted him to go away. But you see, I am back, painting again, and so he was right. He has become my very good friend.''
That man was Joao de Brito, also a Portuguese-American artist. Oliveira, de Brito, Mel Ramos and John Mattos are the four artists in the book ``Ashes to Life: A Portuguese American Story in Art,'' which was published in English and Portuguese, English on one side of a page, Portuguese on the other. It strikes me as a good idea, especially when a book straddles two cultures or countries.
I wrote the forward (or Prefacio) for the book and in so doing learned something of Portuguese history, including the fact that the earliest non-native artists in California included the Portuguese. Most historians were aware of the early Spanish and French artists, but in a way the Portuguese had been overlooked.
The four artists in the book, led by Oliveira, have made sure that hasn't happened in the contemporary California art world. Oliveira is internationally known for his paintings of haunting figures, usually alone, often women, set in simple and abstract landscapes of the mind. He was also fascinated by kestrels, and climbed the hills above Stanford searching for falcons and hawks to be abstracted in his paintings.
But he was also a sculptor and printmaker, and until just a few months ago was working on sculpture pieces at the Art Foundry in Sacramento.
``He was a pioneer in the flat art, the print world,'' says Sacramento artist Gregory Kondos. ``He led the parade. To his students he emphasized don't be negative about things associated with you, be positive, work from your heritage.''
Oliveira, who was born in 1928 of Portuguese immigrants, won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958 when still a young man, was awarded an NEA artist's grant in 1974 and taught at Stanford from 1964 through 1996.
Of his many awards, he may have been proudest of the Distinguished Degree of Commander in ``The Order of the Infante D. Henrique,'' presented by the president of Portugal and the Portuguese government, because it was only in recent years that being Portuguese-American began to figure importanly in how he looked at his art and himself.
In part that was due to de Brito. In ``Ashes to Life,'' Oliveira told former Smithsonian writer Paul Karlstrom that de Brito ``brought a greater awareness of being Portuguese-American into my life.''
To those who appreciated his art, Oliveira brought a greater awareness and richness of the life around us.
A look at Oliveira and his work from Stanford Magazine:
ttp://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2002/novdec/features/oliveira.html