Eduardo Fonseca

"In the street, we find ourselves facing the unpredictable, the other and we must submit to the rules of civility, live with differences and new experiences. In the street, we have to be what we would like people to think of us, whereas with us we are very often what we hide from society. Becoming an artist was not a decision, I think it's something that comes from our experiences since our childhood. Maybe it's a mix of genetics with lifestyle. When I was a child, until my teenage years, my contact with color in my works was very flat, there was a lot of black and white in the drawings I made. When I entered the Fine Arts University, my first paintings still had very few colors, but gradually I began to adopt a more diverse palette. At that time, I made my first trip to Europe: Germany, France, Italy. I came to see this multitude of paintings up close and realized that it was really extremely important to enrich my works with a wide variation of colors. I think that was the trigger that made me lose the fear and laziness that previously blocked me from making this change.

The biggest challenge for everyone is to live in society. The city is cruel in itself: it pits people against each other. It's a daily ring, a mixture of love and hate, economy and waste, right now the city dictates the path the world will take. To accept this society is to be in agreement with inequalities and that is why we must fight to transform the urban space and make it a little less painful.

My works are always about social relations, conflicts, criticisms of our society, even when I represent it painting animals, I mean people. It is in the streets that it all happens." (Eduardo Fonseca)

Submitted by Ricardo Fernandes