My painting seeks visual intensity, but also emotional lightness. I like to think of art as a space of escape — a place where color, beauty, and imagination can offer relief amid the excess and noise of the contemporary world. Art, for me, was not made to weigh people down. It was made to levitate.
Why Do I Paint
Since I can remember, art has been part of the way I observe the world. My gaze has always been restless, curious, and visual — searching to transform images, emotions, and references into something that could exist beyond my own mind. I paint because I need to create. Because my mind operates this way constantly, absorbing details, faces, colors, gestures, expressions, and symbols from everyday life.
My trajectory moves through advertising, fashion, music, cinema, and visual culture. I hold a degree in Social Communication — Advertising and Marketing — in Rio de Janeiro, and worked for many years as an art director and creative director in advertising agencies. Naturally, media became part of my artistic language. Magazine covers, films, fashion photography, music icons, and pop culture feed my visual imagination and find a new existence through painting.
Portraiture has always fascinated me. There is something profound in the human gaze. The pupil, the shine in the eyes, the almost invisible expression of a face — presence and emotion live within that light. I often begin with well-known figures such as Carmen Miranda, Marilyn Monroe, or Madonna, but my interest goes beyond celebrity. What interests me is the symbolic energy carried by the human figure and how it connects with memory, desire, beauty, and identity.
I paint in my home studio in Astoria, Queens, surrounded by music. The soundtrack is as much a part of the process as the paint itself. While sketching images in Photoshop or on paper, researching references, or working directly on canvas, an eclectic playlist follows the rhythm of everything — Nina Simone, Rita Lee, Pink Floyd, Madonna, Jorge Benjor, Marilyn Monroe. Everything blends together. Everything becomes atmosphere.
My painting seeks visual intensity, but also emotional lightness. I like to think of art as a space of escape — a place where color, beauty, and imagination can offer relief amid the excess and noise of the contemporary world. Art, for me, was not made to weigh people down. It was made to levitate.
Porto’s diverse background and sharp eye for people and their personalities are quicky evident. He skilfully blends culture, imagination, and a universal media appeal. His paintings are a testament to the unrelenting power of portraiture in the hands of a skilfull artist.
Angela Di Bello — Art Curator