Page 5 If we say my work is about self-portraiture, it wouldn't be wrong, but incomplete. Using my own head and face as a model was the most direct channel I found for putting my search in practice where I intend to reach a level of meditation towards the core of human existence in an aesthetical and pictorial form.
The face has the character of being among empty space belonging to no place. I had similar sensation looking at Rothko and Giacometti's works, the feeling that the image can lead you to another atmosphere bringing your perception deeper inside the image. In Giacometti's case it happened when I focused only on the main figure of the painting, on the head of the portrait.
At the same time, I build an image, able to live independent of all, out of the canvasses and "attacking" the viewer with its emotional intensity created by the pictorial values. What forces me to confess my emotive personal nature, irresistible love for light, and psychological interest that feeds my biggest weakness: painting.
Pictorial values – that is all my aesthetic concerns are about. All during my life the only other artists work that had a definitive impact on my way to handle with the perception of myself and the world, were the paintings with the very specific characteristic of existing under very strong and well built values made by the plot of the paint and the brush strokes. Not exactly virtuosi, but talent to find brilliant pictorial solutions for the expression of light and feelings. Today it is impossible for me to finish a work without evident influences of Edvard Munch, Rembrandt and Degas because at the end this is what makes me happy and satisfied.
Let me try to explain the REDUCTIVE characteristic I believe is fundamental to my work:
I still remember the day I discovered The Ramones. I was only 10 years old and the sensation that I had found gold. It was the perfection, simple, direct, intense, sense of humor, emotive, sincere, apparently naive, grasping, violent, tender... and it was what all the North American Punk turned out to be later in my life.
The raw canvasses stretched straight on the wall without any kind of support. The painting with no background.... all this where the pictorial values in the Center must to be strong and definitive enough to solve all its own problems and be able to take the viewer by assault at first, but later allows the person to go into it, timeless, with absolutely no distractions. Unavoidable and disturbing emotional impact, Followed by silent introspective meditation towards other level of self-conscientiousness. No ornaments. No excuses. No entertainment. But just one direction into the painting and into yourself at the same time.
And this is the real function of art after all.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Fusce tempor arcu ac urna. Fusce congue eleifend mi. Pellentesque metus sem, elementum eu, rhoncus sed, gravida sit amet, nulla. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean condimentum, odio quis pharetra dignissim, diam nisl dignissim diam, eu interdum magna erat sit amet felis. Etiam non felis at urna tempus luctus. In ullamcorper nisl congue elit. In convallis nibh vitae justo. Quisque ac lectus vitae sem consequat sagittis. Donec turpis nisi, feugiat sollicitudin, fermentum vitae, volutpat sed, ligula.
BIO Caio Fern
CAIO FERN, born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1975, studied Psychology at Universidade Paulista. Fern's work is sometimes described as Realist, "though the sheer intensity of his work sets him apart from most contemporary Realist painters. With a highly individualistic style of painting, Caio reveals the raw physical characteristics and inner tensions of his subjects which proposes an intricate set of perspectives of the "self", is apparent in his self-portraits. Though Caio affirms that a self-portrait can only be considered as a visual reflection of himself, "There is no conceptual speech behind it," he believes strongly that the only important thing is the painting itself."
