Hibiscus Print

ABOUT THE ARTIST India O’Hara was born in Curitiba, south of Brazil, on May 26Th 1963. Art has always been her gift. In her early years, she showed strong artistic leanings while painting and drawing at home. Her mother then decided to take her along her painting classes at age of eight. From then on, various well-known artists in Brazil oriented her studies and training, each one of them a specialist in a different technique as oil, water collors, crayon, etc. After completing her schooling at “Faculdade de Artes do Paraná”, India decided to leave Brazil in order to look for new influences and styles. Her first stop was in England in 1984 followed by Italy in 1985. Upon her return to Brazil, the artist awoke to mysticism and began to research the art and spirituality of ancestral cultures. After completing her searches she began a cycle of speeches about the Inca, Mayan and Aztec cultures as well as the interest of seeing and feeling all that “in loco”. Due to her free and adventurous spirit, India undertook a new challenge; she went to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. There, she tasted those cultures and began representing them from here deepest insights, the exhibition named “Ecos and Rocas” (oil on canvas) were the results of this unique experiences. Subsequently, different journeys took place, but this time she went on interior journeys searching for the deepest meanings of life, death, love and hatred through the four elements; water, fire, air and soil. The earth became literally an integrated part of her paintings, giving pigmentation and texture in a new technique developed by the artist. From that, experience came the exhibition called “Terra” (Earth). The exhibition “Entre Ritos e Mitos Misticos” comes to life from another interior journey of the artist. Celts, Vikings, Druids and Runes Blend in one big magical soup that touches our senses reporting us to a dimension of hidden energies. Shamans of North, Central and South America were in the center of the spiral in earlier 2000s. After more than a month living within Brazilian Tribes (Xavantes, Karajás, Gaviões Parketegê and Assurinis), the artist reached her goal which was to participate of rituals and celebrations as well as to become familiar with their daily lives, values, perceptions and energies. She brought us the colours and shades of the Amazon Forest with her exhibition “Interiores”.