CAMARGO VALENTINO
Born, 1980 Houston, TX
Camargo Valentino was born and raised in Houston, Texas. As the youngest of three siblings (the only male) he spent a lot of alone time drawing pictures of his toys and other items from his imagination learning the quiet patience that he would revisit later on in his adulthood.
At the impressionable age of nineteen, while serving in the US Army, Camargo had an epiphany and realized that he was no longer interested in a life of military. He soon opted out to seriously pursue a life in the arts. After returning from the brief stint in the military he immediately enrolled at the Art Institute of Houston where he studied animation. His love for images grew and he eventually moved onto painting where he found his passion. His journey into the ancient craft of painting took him to Mexico where he took several art classes concentrating on the basics, sculpture, painting, figure drawing and studies of landscapes - all central to a sturdy foundation of any serious artist.
Upon returning to the United States he continued his studies attending several workshops focused on classical techniques of renaissance painting. It was at one of these workshops that he met and befriended iconic painter Odd Nerdrum who invited Camargo for a more in-depth study of the craft of painting at his studios in Iceland and Norway. Under the tutelage of Odd Nerdum, the young artist’s technique evolved vastly. After several months of intensive study under this contemporary master of painting Camargo returned home to hone his craft and discover his unique identity as an artist.
His style is a mash up of classical painting with Pop culture iconography. His mash ups often borrow the essential parts of iconic personalities, celebrities, myths and Latino imagery.
Camargo states, "I paint what I am most attracted to; icons, comics, movies, history, art, sports figures, hip hop, my heritage and world myths. So my paintings are a combination of all these things rolled into one with a splash of myself.”
His reverence for techniques of the old master use of the figure is apparent in his depiction of the human form which he uses to tell his stories through his paintings. Often his paintings can take from 40 hours to close to 200 hours each to create. The biggest influences on his art have been Diego Velasquez, Odd Nerdrum, Norman Rockwell, and contemporaries John Currin, Kris Lewis and Aron Wiesenfeld.
"When someone sees my work I want them to appreciate both the story and the technique. I hope they enjoy seeing it, as much as I enjoyed creating it".
