Artists Represented

Biography:

When speaking of art, this imagery assumes various forms, and the artist is the medium through which it takes shape. The artist forges his own path despite criticism, disapproval, or spiritual despair. Often a cursed figure, he upsets the status quo and challenges the order of things, damned for illuminating his tormented existence. Paradoxically, though his life suggests sacrifice, spiritual upheaval, and self-destruction, the artist seeks the exact opposite, though in the process his is the devil¹s hand. His life is an interminable journey and from the outset he intuits his own downfall. This is a world of shadows that only light and color can overcome. The Devil is both the Angel of Light (who decides the colors of the universe) and the Lord of Darkness. Color is the cultural background of Celso Junior: they are inseparable. In his work the vibrancy of color reflects his aesthetic of the pleasure of pain.

Which does he prefer: painting portraits or creating fantasies? "Both, because I always paint from a model. I don¹t take pleasure painting from a picture in a magazine or one taken by someone else. The process has to be mine from the beginning. The portraits are, for me, the top of creation: One can have one's model as well as a touch of his soul‹sharing a magic situation where fantasies are created for both."

Various responses. "I never think about that," he says, "because I always paint for my own pleasure. I never paint thinking about other people. But if you want to know the response I enjoy most, the answer is get horny!"

Born in Guararapes São Paulo, Brazil on February 5, 1961, Celso Junior received an academic degree in painting from Escola de Música e Belas Artes do Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil in 1985. Since 1989, he has resided in Lisbon, Portugal. In addition to painting, Celso Junior created and organized the Lisbon Gay And Lesbian Film Festival, now in its sixth year.

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