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Joseph de Utia

"I was born in Lima in May of 1968, during the era of the hippies I never knew. I grew up in an atmosphere in which we didn't know much about art, but I was always fascinated by Disney drawings. When I was an adolescent, I'd draw them in my notebooks, then paint them with watercolor and tempera. When I graduated, I studied graphic design, then worked as an art director in advertising agencies. At the same time, I ventured into the fine arts. I met a number of young painters with whom I interacted.

"My formation as an artist comes from the School of Fine Arts and Graphic Design of the Instituto de Diseño Montessori. I've been dedicated to art since 1997 after leaving the field of publicity. Together with friends who are also fine artists, I've been showing my work. Leaving the agency affected my income, but art fills me with satisfaction and I'm able to live a tranquil life. I could never have turned away from painting, as it is my passion, my maximum form of expression.

"Once when I was just beginning, I went to an art collector who spent time with me. He showed me his gallery and the works of excellent masters, and encouraged me to paint several projects and to dedicate myself entirely to painting. Later, I met the Reverend Estrada, who has been my spiritual father. He asked me to paint a large scale canvas, but I wasn't ready in those days. Reverend Estrada and been my main source of encouragement in following the call of art; he believed in me even when I didn't have a path defined. Many years later, I heard he had lost his home and everything to Hurricane Katrina.

"Like every boy, I liked the Japanese cartoon monster figures. Today they're just a small memory from the many childhood memories that I apply to my paintings.

"The themes of my art are surreal, almost fantastic, like those of Marc Chagall. I also base my paintings on poetic and impressionist themes, as I learned more from the French school of Monet, Manet and Renoir than from the masters of Peruvian painting. Russian painting, such as that by the suprematist Kazimir Malevich, and the work of American painter Jasper Johns have always caught my eye with their abstraction and simplified shapes. I rescue some of this in my own work, but with a personal touch.

"My motivation is the resolution to make myself known, to communicate my visual language and give something to society with my proposals. I strive to transmit what I communicate to those who know art as far as the contemporary styles of today's artists. But within this global field and market, it is difficult to make oneself known unless you have a personal style, a hallmark.

"Art is everything for me. I don't find any other way to live unless it is through my paintings. Each work is different and unique. I don't like undue praise when someone gives an opinion of my work. As far as critique goes, who better than the artist himself who knows and understands his own work? In this way, I like Oscar Wilde's treatise when talking about art.

"I've shown my paintings in the National Museum, in the Congreso de la República del Perú, in private galleries and in the 2006 International Book Fair. There, through my art, I met Maria Kodama, the widow of Jorge Luis Borges, the great Argentine writer. She suggested we alternate in an art workshop to be called 'The Labyrinths of Borges,' which thrills and fascinates me.

"My greatest challenge is to marry, to support myself and to carry out my cultural projects, as I work with colleagues organizing art exhibits.

"I'd hope you'll appreciate my art, as it is an incentive to the spirit and to your lives. But you'll never tire of a painting if you fall in love with it. I know I like to look at the works of Matisse and Chagall for hours. I want someone to fall in love with my paintings and to try to understand what it is that leads me to create something like this. To fill their lives with the force and color of my work."