mixed feelings Painting

Born the 30 of July of 1974 at Buenos Aires and spent his childhood at Neuquen - Argentina. Academic background He studied drawing and painting at Neuquen‘s Provincial School of Arts. In May of 2008 he went to art classes with Tulio de Sagastizabal an art teacher and painter. Although he has been being a self- taught artist in the year 2005 he made to art classes with Elsa Soibelman an art teacher and painter. Actually lives and works in Buenos Aires – Argentina. ​ Juan Barletta participated in various art fairs, national and international. He found wider audiences in Europe. He has shared group shows with one of the greatest exponents of contemporary Pop Art scene as; Mr Brainwash, Ron Inglés, The London Police, C215, Joe Black; Jef Aerosol, D * Face, Lita Cabellut, André Monet, among others. In 2013, through Opera gallery (London) participated in the largest group show, tribute to David Bowie whose work was chosen as the cover of the show in the prestigious London gallery and the image of his painting, it was which the, official musician site, has selected to promote the event. Juan’s works focus on consumerism and desire, his photo-realist paintings evoke an ambiguous duality of desire and beauty. Juan's images of often controversial iconic figures within popular culture question the ideals of synthetic beauty and its imagined reality. He alludes towards the falsity of images represented within the media and its distorted boundaries of what is real and artificial. Melting faces like molten plastic bleed away leaving the audience to wonder what lays beneath the surface. Cartoon colours are cleverly used to create the make believe world of the celebrity; a world that aspires to and promotes a lifestyle dedicated to beauty, fame and wealth, but which will by contrast seek the grotesque degradation of the spectacle in order to secure its 5 minutes of fame. We are presented with dripping homages to 'bit-pop' celebrities, glorified and iconoclastic, dripping like sweets left in the sun. Juan's paintings invade and stimulate our perception of reality through masterfully created synthetic portraits as sickly sweet as 'candy'. Juan Barletta (b1974) was born and lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina; he studied fine art at Neuquén School of Arts. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and participated in solo and group shows, notably with The Opera Gallery. He also regularly participates in art fairs. www.juanbarletta.