Issue No.22 - International Edition Polo De’Marco Magazine - International Edition | Page 76

TIAGO AZEVEDO:
REACHING THE HEIGHTS
OF THE LOW BROW FORM
Visual Artist’s Creations Probe Pop Culture, Religion, Fashion
and Fantasy for a New Spin on the Pop Surrealist Method.
C
onceptual Realism. Cartoon-lainted
abstract surrealism. Low Brow. There
are quite a few terms to describe the
subversive art form that arose from
the 1970s underground comic book world, but
there is no one like Tiago Azevedo, one of its
most practiced and passionate disciples. The
artist, based in Germany but raised in Portugal,
uses pop culture, fantasy, fables, religion and
even works by the Brothers Grimm and Hans
Christian Andersen to influence his artwork,
which blends classical techniques from the
Baroque and PreRaphaelite with contemporary
concepts, like his unmistakable signature: wildly
manipulated eyes, whose dimensions he alters
because it’s the perfect way to directly transfer
to the canvas the emotions I want to convey.
By: Bailey Beckett
The end result are creations like his most recent
“Historical Figures” collection, a sevenpiece
series that depicts re-imagined figures like
Cleopatra, Queen Victoria, Joan of Arc, Marie
Antoinette, Napoleon, Louis XIV and Queen
Elizabeth immersed in a surrealist milieu.
“It started with the desire of coating figures
that inspired me with layers of fantasy and
mystique,” he says. “These figures touched me
either for their life journey or their legendary
beauty.” Though blessed with a wild imagination,
Tiago found painting actual people liberating, “I
do not have to think about how the character
will be,” he says. “The image just comes to me
in my mind, all I have to do is to gather a series
of techniques to translate it to the canvas.” For
the charismatic queen of Egypt, he strove to
depict “her mesmerizing gaze that seduced
two of the most powerful rulers of the Roman
Empire” while for the French resistance heroine,
he wanted to show her sensuality despite of her
aggressive and masculine charm.” His favorite
character, Napoleon, challenged him to capture
“his austere figure while also imaging the
splendour of his era.”