Fernando Feijoo describes himself as a ‘journey man’, incorporating into his work the culture, architecture and life conditions seen whilst travelling to different cities around the world. A skilled and experienced printmaker, having worked at the prestigious Curwen Studio in Cambridge for four years, like a modern day Hogarth, Feijoo makes satirical comments on present day urban society, depicting everything from street culture to bull-fighting in his art. Almost always in sequential and narrative format, Feijoo’s prints and books often refer to the work of old masters such as Hogarth and Goya; the artist has re-illustrated some of their stories with a modern twist, bringing them into the present day by dealing with current social and political issues.
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Although Feijoo’s work almost always has an element of humour, it also reflects a darker side of human nature, as seen in works such as Crack Could Get By, which shows the cruel act of fighting pit bull terrier dogs, a trend that has become popular in recent years in certain social circles. The works have a marked film noir quality, where plunging perspective and stark contrasts of light and shade are used to bring drama to the developing narrative. The recent Bulls v Humans triptych was made in response to the Spanish Bull fighting festivals. Feijoo reverses the role of the matador and the bull, changing the prospective of the traditional sport so that the bull is in charge, similar to in Roman times when the gladiators would fight helpless slaves. In these works, Feijoo uses old theatrical bull fighting posters as a reference, and invented the names of the fighters featured with the help of a Spanish bullfighter friend. In the also recent Characters Series, Feijoo looks at lost faces of society, mainly using tattooed inmates from South American prisons as a reference point. Almost like the marks made in relief or etching printing techniques, he focuses on the narratives inscribed onto their skin and how they tell a story of a past life. In these works Feijoo has used different layering of found materials via photo etching to compose the final prints.
Feijoo studied his MA in Fine Art Printmaking at Winchester College of Art and soon afterwards became a technical assistant at Curwen Studios in Cambridge, respected fine art printers and publishers, where he worked as a Master Printmaker for four years. He is now a full time practicing artist and works as a visiting lecturer in printmaking at various universities around the UK. Prizes have included the Gwen May Trust award from the Royal Society of Printmakers (2006); a competition to design a book of fables organised by the Fine Press Book Association, and the Tallinn Print Triennial with his ‘Alphabet Book’ (2007). His work is held in collections at MOMA, Aberystwyth, Wales, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the V&A, London. Each of the Bulls v Humans prints are in an edition of 15 but has a unique colour combination; the image stays the same throughout the edition, but the background colour varies from cream, yellow, orange or brown, and the boarder is either black or red. If you are interested in this piece then please call us to request your colour combination.