FRANCISCO PEREIRA

Sculptor

Francisco Pereira was born in Caracas, Venezuela and although his public appearance as a sculptor has been relatively recent, it already shown the extensive knowledge and research that has taken him to this point. Francisco graduated as an architect from the Venezuelan Central University and been developing his plastic work silently since 1983. At that time, he became associated with the Foundation Institute for Advanced Studies, known by its Spanish acronym “IDEA” (meaning Fundación Instituto de Estudios Avanzados) where he joined a workshop on color and volume oered by Carlos Cruz Díez and Francisco Sobrino. This was followed by a second workshop: “Form, Composition, Color and the Aesthetics of Proportions.”

From 2007 through 2011, Francisco Pereira, shared his plastic research with academic work, teaching design at the Santa Maria University in Caracas. His relationship with art was expressed through architecture, in which he managed to link art and space. On this premise he completed different proposals and projects, ranging from housing, recreational, educational and service projects. More recently, in 2012, this relationship became evident through the responsibility with which he was charged as coordinator of a pilot project for “Sensitive Pedagogy” aiming to integrate art in the state schools of Miranda in the context of the Ibero-American Art Fair. Here, he worked, hand in hand, with renowned plastic artists such as Julio Pacheco Ribas, Asdrúbal Colmenares and Pedro Morales.

His sculptural work truly began in the workshop of the plastic artist Marcos Salazar Delno. Where he began making clay models and resin sculptures, which led, to the melting of bronze, developing this work under the technical guidance of the sculptor James Mathison.

Pereira’s bronze sculptures make-up a surprising “Bestiario” inquiring into the oneiric imagination, akin the surreal tradition. These pieces of the Bestiario have been exhibited around the world. He is currently working in new projects sharing spaces with the prestigious Spanish sculptors José Luis Fernández y Carlos García Muela. Also, for the Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina a retrospective of Venezuelan sculptors and the project “MIGRANTES” for D´Museo Gallery, Caracas.