Antonio Pessoa

Live !

Original and unique,mystical and straightforward,charmingly shy and enthusiastic communicator,hard worker and contemplative procrastinator,Antonio Pessoa's nature lives up to a rich controversial personality which indeed has beed the heart and soul of his cinematic adventurous lifesyle.Fact. A " no two alike" myth,this artist,jazz-blues musician,art curator and positive-thinker,remains an up to date phenomenon after all these years of experiencing systematically the leading role of a nail-bitting motion picture which could be eventually titled "Antonio Pessoa the One and Only ". I'm positively sure,his aristocratic background and super-protected privileged childhood education,let alone his unquestionable genetic talent he possesses,have been the seeds for him to grow and become a premature prodigy,even featuring the performance characteristics of a dazzling skilled in any field sort of teenager. Therefore Antonio Pessoa throughout the years has been leading a kind of life we only see in the best and most exciting Hollywood productions,from ever since the time he was twelve years old up to now. Very probably,that's why all his art is so deliciously eclectic,exciting and new,that's definitely why his whole oeuvre is what it is.An awe-inspiring universe of wonder,genius,complexity and over the edge overwhelming content. Since the time,me,Jacob Kotsky,with the valuable assistance help from Luis Santiago,Nancy Igartiburu and Pierre Fontanals,started writing and publishing online all about an artist named Antonio Pessoa,back in 2005,we've been receiving hundreds of letters from people from all over Europe and United States,on a punctual weekly basis asking us an impressive great deal of extra information related with this mysterious artist.More than enough to provide us with substantial motivation to carry on with our reviews and general interest arousing biographical articles about Pessoa's life and work. Being all the four of us close friends of the artist,public relations and global collaborators,references and accurate reliable information sources hasn't been a problem for very obvious reasons,moreover I'm happy to report that this process on the whole has been and it is mostly truly stimulating,enjoyable and rewarding.Fact. All this takes place precisely when Pessoa,mind made up,decides to break up with his traditional figurative paintings to embrace exclusively contemporary fine art,surprising us all as he systematically comes up with a totally different line of work,Pierre Fontanals named New Era,in which Antonio Pessoa once again proves to be indeed a unquestionable gifted talented innovator,by so originally starting to produce a series of canvases and watercolors clearly reflecting a no way back personal commitment and response to the latest contemporary art tendencies,where not only a striking chromatic miscellaneous brilliance invades his canvases space,but also where his drawing skills astonishingly accomplish the cutting edge and beyond of today's art expression,all so intelligently combined,so unpretentiously aesthetically elegant and glamorous in such a manner of a highly inventive visual writing of a kind of emotional fiction that captures the viewer's sensations at first sight. One of the most frequently asked questions about the artist,still concerns his somewhat cloudy past,namely the late eighties and the super productive golden years of the nineties. Being Antonio Pessoa the paradigmatic straighforward sort of person,it's not always that easy and simple to make him talk about his past,let alone twenty years ago today. However,since I've met him, from the very first time back in the year 1997,I've been having plenty of time to,shall we say,solve the big puzzle,bit by bit,tip by tip,step by step. Therefore,as I became ritualized in Pessoa's hidden secrets,and the flipping schemes involving his outs and abouts of his past,private life,work and lifestyle,solving the riddle the best way I knew how,the complexity of the whole endless process actually turned out to be indeed a truly challenging and rewarding experience,a delicious hard brain teaser,solving the enigma wrapped in mystery,adventure,night life,studio performance,love affairs,glamor and the inevitable unexpected drastic changes. During the mid-late eighties,long before the first Gulf War,Antonio Pessoa is a night-life legend,a jazz-blues musician skillfully playing the grand-piano and singing,performing to perfection new versions of songs by The Beatles,Elton John,Simply Red,Prince,Paul McCartney,Billy Joel,The Doors,The Eagles,James Taylor,Police,Television,Roxy Music,David Bowie,and even Elvis,Sinatra,plus tunes by John Coltrane,Miles Davis and George Gershwin. Cherished by an excited nightly audience he often took the tonight programme a whole lot further on into the morning light by using his sketching and drawing skills overwhelming his celebrating fans club community by painting live,on stage,under the spotlight. According to many of his soul mates,show biz agents,all time friends and audience inocent bystanders years later we've been stumbling upon,here and there and everywhere,the magic of these daily live art shows animated entertainment,was one of Pessoa's most clamouring and most enjoyable periods ever,where fine art was a dancing all night away live play in which Antonio Pessoa besides having the leading role,was also indeed having the time of his life,let alone the inevitable great improvement concerning his artistic performance mastery and expertise. Being by then already a truly experienced live performance veteran,it's no big deal and no wonder the artist was definitely able to handle the situation with that effortless stunning ravishing easy-to-do know-how which made him step on the stage and thereby become the prototype unique symbol of live art action of our times. Even during the nineties,right at his career apotheosis,as he successfully turned and strode toward the top of the hill of his striking worldwide reknown Romantic Period,Pessoa now and then breaks through the boundaries of his art studio and goes back to the night life yet for another display of fine art action live performances,both in the sunny cosmopolitan glamorous mediterranean zone and in celtic inspired Vigo city Atlantic frantic weekends lively night life. Unpredictable as he is,it seems only the future will be able to actually show us whether or not Pessoa's live art action is over for good. The answer for this frequently asked question for the time being remains in the holy secret of the Gods,for in my humble opinion,anytime,anywhere,anyway,anyhow,definitely it wouldn't be the surprise of the century if the artist made up his mind to return to that lively dimension of his life where painting live eventually might bring him that kind of magic,that sort of rewarding inspiration,thrilling excitement and inner satisfaction,we all so desperately need from time to time,here and then,once in a while,in order to make us feel meaningfully alive to such an extent in which we come once again to that delicious point where life once again makes absolute perfect sense,people is beautiful and this planet a wonderful place to celebrate life and arts!