Featured here is of one of the paintings from my Brazilian Period (late 1990’s-early 2000’s) that will be on exhibit in LEROI: Living in Color, November 11-March 26, 2023, at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. It is a 5-foot x 5-foot oil and acrylic on canvas, which I titled, “The Conversation.”
I look at this painting as a celebration, a carnival of the kind they have in Brazil or Rio de Janeiro. However, in creating it, I made it more of a dream-like sequence.
For example, instead of a donkey at the festival, which would be the norm, I added a flying bull---that I eventually named, "Bullis,--- and which became part of many of my future paintings. And I painted the people all busily interacting with each other in various ways.
In 2011, this painting was featured at New York City’s famed, Agora Gallery, located in the Chelsea Art District. It garnered so much interest that the gallery owners extended its ‘exhibition for six months.
By the time I evolved through my Brazilian Period, I had created 100 paintings within this theme, a variety of which will be exhibited in LEROI: Living in Color.
LEROI: Living in Color Exhibition includes the work of students from Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology (BCAT,) Buffalo Public Schools (BPS,) Just Buffalo Literary Center (JBLC,) and Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center. The exhibition will be on view at the Burchfield Penney Art Center through March 26, 2023, presented by M&T Bank, with additional support from organizations and individuals throughout the Western New York community.