Artist Showdown

Fernando Ferreira de Araujo

 Featured Artist

             :: Portfolio ::           :: Q & A ::           ::  Fernando F. Araujo ::

Fernando Ferreira de Araujo’s series of paintings, are both evocative of and inspired by experiences he witnessed in his native Brazil, and those he continues to explore as a prolific artist in New York. His loose painterly brushwork captures the changing moods of the natural world and his inner, psychic response to it. Formed and re-formed through color and tone, shapes shift, billow and blend. Light is reflected and refracted. Atmosphere comes alive, and is both sober and sensuous. The hallmark dripping of paint describes the continual evolving state of sky and water. With a strong immediacy of the abstract expressionists, his paintings allow the viewer to form their own associations and subjective relationship to the images.”

Hallie Cohen
Chair, Art Department, Marymount Manhattan College, and
Curator of The Philoctetes Center
New York, NY


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Friday, May 2, was the opening reception of the Solo Show from the Brazilian, New York based artist, Fernando Ferreira de Araujo in Miami. The exhibition took place at the trendy Artemide, in the heart of Coral Gables. Fabio Villas, the curator of the show, received over 140 guests, comprised by art collectors, interior designers and fashionistas. They packed the venue from 5:30 to 10:30 pm. The exhibition will be open until June 6.

Crossroad: The Liminal State of Light and Dark - Solo Show, Fernando Ferreira de Araujo

Crossroad 6                                     Crossroad 7                                  Crossroad 9

The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. One’s sense of identitydissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation. Liminality is a period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed - a situation which can lead to new perspectives. For this exhibition, we will have 15 paintings of Fernando Ferreira de Araujo’s latest expressionism figurative and cityscape series. Each and every painting is personal, every stroke opens a concealed wound showing the artist bare soul and his strive for self-discovery. Through contrasts of light and dark and a remarkable bleeding hallmark, he’s trodden a path in which we’re guided by a strong Chiaroscuro Abstract Expressionism influence. (Fabio Villas, Curator)

“This series -Crossroad The Liminal State of Light and Dark - represents the comfort I now find in contrasts, in being vulnerable to changes, finding new paths through adversities. I’ve always been attracted by B&W movies, by rainy days, by the silence I relate to darkness. Most and foremost by the contrast of light and dark found on Chiaroscuro. It’s fascinating to tread the dark, shaped by rays of light and the new dimension I’m able to discover amid forms that inevitable become my abstract expressionism interpretation of my memories.” (Fernando Ferreira de Araujo)

Venue: Artemide - 277, Giralda Avenue - Coral Gables, FL 33134 - From May 2 to June 6, 2008

www.fernandoaraujo.net