São Paulo – Paintings from the visual artist from São Paulo Andre Berardo will be sold in Dubai in the next few weeks. The painter already sent four works for the architect and business owner Vincenzo Visciglia, who lives in the emirate and is interior designer of palaces in the Middle East. In April, Visciglia will open a store for his fashion brand, Aava, which will also display art works and objects for interior design.
Berardo didn’t know Visciglia. The opportunity to take his paints to the architect’s store came when his girlfriend, model Marina Fragnani, took part in the editorial photoshoot of the store’s advertising campaign. In another hall of the same building, he will put on display and sell furniture and interior design pieces made by Brazilian artists. The store will open on the new Dubai Design District, known as D3.
This is the first time that Bernardo’s paintings will be on display in an Arab country. The artist visited Dubai two weeks ago. “Since we visited (him and his girlfriend), I was very excited with the opportunity. We got to know the city and even saw some events within the art week [held from March 13 to 19]. I was even more excited, after all, my art is going there”, said the painter.
From the four works shipped to Dubai, two portray tigers, one a lion and the other one a jaguar. In his works, the artist uses a paintbrush as his main tool. The retouches are made using his fingers. In some of the works, he uses his own pictures or drawings to be used for models for the paintings.
“I use acrylic on canvas with a spatula. The first images [of his current work] were faces of people, but later I focused on the drawings of felines”, he says. In addition to felines, Berardo produced paitings of planets and even a new interpretation of the Monalisa, work from the Italian artist Leonardo da Vince painted at the beginning of the 16th century. The price of his works varies from USD 12,000 to USD 20,000 and can change according to negotiations.
Berardo was born in Americana, 130 km from São Paulo. In 2011 and 2013, his works were on exhibition in Fine Arts Salon at the Carrousel du Louvre, in Paris. Before, his works were on exhibition in a gallery in the city of São Paulo. His works were acquired by clients in Miami and by a Lebanese art buyer. In Brazil, his works appeared in homes of soccer player Ronaldinho Gaúcho, actress Grazi Massafera and model Izabel Goulart.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
