BIOGRAPHY

JOSÉ MARIA FERREIRA

Born in Itapeva-SP, José Maria graduated in Fine Arts at Faculdade de Belas Artes de São Paulo, specialized in Art and Education at the University of São Paulo and in Scenario Design and Costume Design at Espaço Cenográfico São Paulo. José Maria attended studios of renowned artists such as: Fajardo, Julia Székely, Israel Kislansky and Chistiane Grigoletto.
He also attended classes of Cecile Van Der Heiden, when studying in Amsterdam. The contact he had with this artist, as well as the exposure to European galleries and artists changed José Maria and his work decisively. Encouraged by Cecile, José Maria began to express its fears, frustrations and pains. He began to nurture his courage to expose himself and to connect with the ugly and the non-aesthetic. It led him to find a unique, original and, above all, his own art. Such immersion in himself – encouraged by the experience in Europe – has brought to light a new and authentic world for the artist.

Currently works and lives in Jundiaí, São Paulo.

I have been researching for some time the formation of the Brazilian people, the influences and mixtures of the cultures of the Europeans, Africans brought during the slavery period and the Indians inhabitants of Brazil. The arrival of the royal family to Brazil, the immigrants. All great cauldron of influences and miscegenations. The Baroque, Portuguese tiles, English porcelain, our forests and animals, at the same time the stereotyped view of Brazil, what is real and what is a lie. Also included in this great mix are influences, a globalized world and interconnected through digital media. It presents an infinity of details and elements that form a narrative, a story to be read little by little. Religious symbols, aesthetic and imaginary elements, in a world at the same time organized and chaotic. A carnival, an allegory of some samba school, dramatic, exaggerated and full of details.
It observes the great chasms of social differences in Brazil, while discussing the war of current narratives in which we often do not know what the truth is. And what would that truth really be? In a country of so many differences, references and influences. This reality invades and breaks the order. At the same time it reflects the restlessness and personal changes of a white man with a classical education who is also Latino and mixed race. It reflects the internal changes of new consciousness and discoveries as an artist and as a person, of breaking patterns and thoughts.