26 January - 18 February 2015. Latin American exhibition - Through Others Irley de Jesus Leal was born in Caravelas in 1970. He is a self-taught artist who lives and works on the rural edge of Teixeira de Freitas, Bahia, north-eastern Brazil. At 14 months old, Leal contracted infantile polio which left him requiring a frame and crutches to walk. A wooden cart, improvised by his grandfather, transported him around the family farm, but he loved listening to the stories of others to travel beyond the horizon. At school, Leals hyper-realistic drawing caught the eye of his teachers, but the lack of an art school forced him to develop his technique at home, through portraits and still-lifes, on wood and fabric. Following an exhibition in 1995 at Teixeira University, Leal was commissioned to paint portraits for the landless rural workers movement and in 2000, came into contact with ABRA, the Brazilian Network of Arteducators. In 2005, he began his project Through Others, to see himself and walk the world, on brushes. An early portrait, exhibited in Madrid, brought Leal into contact with Spanish Renaissance masters, and, following responses to the presentation of first three paintings of Through Others at the Brazilian conference of Arteducators in 2007, Leal decided to deepen his study of classical technique. He gives painting workshops for senior citizens and young people.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 09:13:59 +0000