NEW FACES

2015
The photograph obtained in the Studio goes afterward to editing and post processing, using diverse software programs. Once ready, these images are printed on photographic paper being then glued on top of a PVC plaque. In his painting atelier it will follow the second phase regarding the New Faces construction. The photograph’s surface is worked with the painting technics of an abstractionist style, with acrylic paint, graphite pencil, chalk powder, scrubbing, drippings and action painting.
These two artistic languages, painting and photography, end up cohabiting the same space, interacting and dialoging visually, giving to the spectator an observation of a united whole and to the artist two distinct pathways in a unified conjunct.
Pintomeira photographed and painted, combining the two aesthetical concepts over the same physic area, without conflicts nor dualistic interpretations.

NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016 | Private Collection
NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016 | Private Collection
NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016 | Private Collection
NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016 | Private Collection
NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016
NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016
NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016
NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016
NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016 | Private Collection
NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016 | Private Collection
New Faces | Photography and Painting cohabiting the same space

Pintomeira is a figurative artist. Painting or Photography. His concept is free and we can situate it next the New Figuration that appeared in the 60s and 70s decades as a reaction against abstractionism and the minimal and conceptual art. It focuses mainly around the human figure, being the image of the corporeal face, the most recurrent, as demonstrate the themes Faces and Other Faces that, between 2003 and 2010 made part of the journey of his artistic creation, being these ones in the Painting area. New Faces is his most recent work, built around feminine model faces, photographed in his studio.
His first meeting with photography happened in Amsterdam, in 1977. After he abandoned the course of Filmmaking, he was left with the Photography, only. In the place of the moving pictures with a pattern of 24 frames per second, remained the static images caught by his camera’s sensor. Being the painting his first and main work, photography was mostly placed in a complementary place, being, many times, helpful to that one. But not always. Photography was, at certain periods, his main artistic manifestation, monopolizing all his attention, to the detriment of painting. His most recent work is one of these periods.
In this specific case of the New Faces, which we now analyze, these two languages, photography and painting meet each other and embrace each other on the same support in order to create a new aesthetic expression, which demonstrates, once more, his obstinacy to look for innovation, that strongly characterized his entire artistic route. The image captured by his DSLR camera’s sensor, posteriorly printed on photo paper and glued to PVC board, will not be approached, by him, as a conventional photography, which is immediately put in frame for exhibit purposes. The Photography Shows in the exhibit areas are today globally generalized. The ordinary family, friends, vacations and travel photographs, where the artistic and aesthetic elements are treated by the photographer as a secondary concern, win the right, in spite of that, to take, often, place on the museum and gallery’s room walls where, rarely, we will encounter the authentic photographic artwork which the artist created and treated as such. Contemporary art and its curators, with their blind avidity to show new things, ending to validate almost everything as art photography which, in most cases, makes the visitor to question himself if he couldn´t also exhibit his vacation or birthday party photographs.
It was in 1826, precisely 190 years ago that the French Joseph Niépce captured an image on his tin plate, produced by his heliographic process, which is now recognized as the first photograph ever taken and lasting. Posteriorly, the photography passed through constant evolutions, through Daguerre, Hercules Florence, Talbot, George Eastman, having already a strong artistic preoccupation with Henri Cartier Bresson, Man Ray and Irving Penn, amongst others. With the technical and technological evolution, the digital cameras and software improvements, photography democratized itself. It is nowadays abundantly produced, by many people but, only very few take advantage of all these improvements, to capture and to work photographs with creative and aesthetical preoccupations, having the legitimate right to occupy a place in the pages of the contemporary art history.
Pintomeira, even though, having spent most of his career working on painting, when he grabbed his camera, he always carried with him these aesthetical and artistic concerns. Having, during his career, captured and produced a big quantity of photographs that frequently served his paintings, only recently he started to exhibit his work.  As we already mentioned, the New Faces constitute his most recent creative work, being the faces of feminine models, captured in his studio by his DSLR camera with an FX format sensor and with appropriate objectives. White and black backgrounds were used, flashes with octagonal and rectangular soft boxes, shadows, beauty dish and reflectors. The photograph obtained goes then to editing and post processing, using diverse software. Once ready, these images are printed on photographic paper being then glued to a PVC board. In his painting atelier it will follow the second phase regarding the New Faces construction. The photograph’s surface is worked with the painting technics of an abstractionist style, with acrylic paint, graphite pencil, chalk powder, scrubbing, drippings and action painting.
These two artistic languages, painting and photography, end up cohabiting the same space, interacting and dialoging visually, giving to the spectator an observation of a united whole and to the artist two distinct pathways in a unified conjunct.
Pintomeira photographed and painted, combining the two aesthetical concepts over the same physic area, without conflicts nor dualistic interpretations.

NEW FACES | mixed media on photo paper-PVC board | 70x90cm | 2016

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