Interview by Jimon

1-Where do you live and create currently? I live in Caldas da Rainha , Portugal.

2-Did you have any training for art or is it inherent? Yes, I studied Visual Arts.

3-How would you describe João Gabriel? Just someone who likes to do what he like.

4-What are the defining influences that made you, you? Well, I guess the most important ones were the painters I admire. They are responsible for my will to paint. I’m thinking about the Venetian Renaissance, mostly Tiziano and Tintoretto. And then some others like Goya, El Greco, Matisse, Bonnard.

5-What would you be doing if not an artist? It has always been clear to me that I wanted to be a painter, and I never wanted to do anything else.

6-What kind of art hangs on the walls of your home? They’re all pieces I’ve swapped with friends, and they vary very much.

7-What is the one thing you don’t know that you want to know? I would love to know more languages.

8-What impact would you like to see from your work? I have no clear intentions with my work, but it really fulfills me to know my works are appreciated and can have some sort of impact on people.

9-Does politics effect your work? Yes. I think, in the end, all art is political. In my case there’s a clear political impact because of the queer subjects I depict.

10-What is your thought on the following statement; Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable! I think that must be true in some cases but does not apply to everything. I don’t know if I’m a disturbed or a comfortable person, but I’ve been disturbed with some works and comforted by others. In the end I think all that matters is for the artwork to have some kind of impact.

11-Tell us something about the world that you want to see changed? I would like to see a world without prejudice, where we could see things for what they are.

12-What advice would you give putative collectors? I don’t know. To buy what they believe they should.

13-Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration? Not really. The closest thing I have to that might be my studio, I cannot work outside of it.

14-If you could have dinner with three artists dead/alive who would be at your table? Bacon, Beckett and Cézanne.

15-Name three things you can’t live without in your studio? Apart from all the material I need to paint; music and food.

16-How would someone find you on social media?

On Instagram @gabrielpereirajoao