about S.Alves
S.Alves, Is his stage name, Sergio Oliveira born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1958, attended the School of Fine Arts in 1976. Despite he does not like very much of the academic studies, because according to him they “inhibit the force of natural expression of the artist” he remains in that school for two years. During this time, he stood out for being creative in his drawings and works executed in gouache and coal. At the end of the 80's, S.Alves, began to work and live in Salvador-Bahia and later joined a group of debates and discursion of Contemporary Art, which met in "Galleria 13", painters, gallery owners, emerging writers and critical journalists. The meetings had as their agenda the debate about the thoughts and the future of Contemporary Art, later they became known as 'The Critics of Gallery 13'. Influenced by the movement, S.ALVES begins to take an interest in portraying his works intensely, and at this stage, he experiments with other techniques by geometrizing the human figure and objects between cubism and expressionism. At this point of his life, the result of his works is the interpretation of art seen in different dimensions, with several trends that together show, with great creativity and sensitivity, his full force of expression. S.ALVES is interested in issues related to his daily life and, synthetically, he tends to create a unique style, in which he looks to geometrical compositions, presenting a very evolutionary process, when it concerns to human figure. He does not feel the need to paint the whole plane of the paint. Actually, he prefers to leave spaces “in-nature” and his worries are all about the main object of the paint. The evolution of this practice is a very slow process, requiring courage and absence of concepts, although he has been criticized and forced to a deep inner concentration. In what concerns to Arts, he has a preference for vibrant colors, his painting is enriched by strong contrasts, diluting the objects in chromatic hues. All the restlessness of the painter seems to be contained in the hallmarks, sometimes straight, sometimes circular, as well as some graphics and faint shadows that darken the colors, some with fairly uniform smoothness.
Expressionism Subjective
The Subjective Painting in Expressionism
Over the last 10 years, S.ALVES has sought a new way of painting contextualizing with a cross-sectional view between real and abstract. With this starting point, he has sought to develop a different style of painting, which it defines as 'SUBJECTIVE EXPRESSIONISM'.
S.ALVES believes that "SUBJECTIVE EXPRESSIONISM" is trying to break free from the fire of the last 10 years. However, this artist's personal vision leads him to a different way of looking at contemporary painting.
In 2001, S.ALVES meets a Portuguese painter residing in Paris, who invites him to paint together in his studio in the Montparnasse district, and between 2002 and 2004, the visits to Paris become more frequent. At this stage, S.ALVES believed that his work had an incredible improvement, about the Light, Black and White, Creative Freedom and a new way of looking at the Natural Space of the canvas.
During his travel to Brooklyn-NY in December 2014, he visits a few nightclubs and meets the band “Jazz Quartet”, playing David Brubeck's “Time Out”. This rustic and modern scenario encourages him to rethink the concept of the "Abstract Expressionism" in New York.
Returning to Lisbon, S.ALVES concentrates on the history of the "European Expressionist" movement and started to ask to himself if there is something is missing about a new point of view regards "Contemporary Painting".
In 2017, S.ALVES begins to develop what he believes to be a new style, named "The Subjectivity of Painting in Expressionism" or "The Subjective Expressionism".
This is because S.ALVES understands that figurative drawing, geometrical drawing of objects, drawn landscape and still life are artistic concepts, which in modern times and in collective movement thinking are losing space for the new generations in which everything is disposable.
So, S.ALVES seeks, through painting, to follow this actual tendency and the way of seeing things, from the old and new generations, as everything being considerably Subjective. This is "The Subjective Painting in Expressionism".