[INTERVIEW] Interview with JUCA MAXIMO | Juca Máximo é entrevistado pelo Portal Art Terms de Seoul/Korea

[INTERVIEW] Interview with JUCA MAXIMO
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Hi, Juca. Could you introduce yourself to the Art Terms Magazine readers?

I’m Juca Máximo visual artist, sculptor, designer and musician. I’m Fascinated by the feminine mystique, his expressionist compositions center around the depiction of female iconography, encapsulating the essence of life. I search “visual intensity” and psychological drama to reveal a “timeless romantic perspective”

The bold and expressive techniques representing powerful femininity really catch my eyes and want to view more other works. Could you tell us the process of making your artworks?

For me, art often represents more questions than it answers. I have in me the idea of Willingness to power from Nietzsche, as well as Schopenhauer’s Will, Spinoza’s Power to Act and Jung’s psychic energy. Everyone says there is a driving force that makes us live the best representations of ourselves. I believe that this strength must be discovered by everyone, what I call “Revealing the feeling”. The sleeping feeling becomes alive, intense, energetic, and connective

The colors used in your artworks evoke and emphasize the strong feelings to the viewers. How do you choose the colors and why did you start using them?

All of my artist research is focused on psychology and philosophy, with that in mind, I represent feelings through the figurative images that I paint, so too, I do with colors. The Portraits Colors that speak of living in the now, in addition to the moment, living in today. It is nothing more than a red thrown on canvas, expression of this explosion and passion to live in the present moment. In the Absence series that I talk about self-analysis, I use black. It is as if we close our eyes and investigate within ourselves.

Is there a detail that you particularly put effort into while creating an artwork?

Yes. In All my series there is a line that unites the works. Portrait Colors talks about emotions, about living in the present, now, outside, the moment. Absence expresses self-analysis, the search within oneself to find something that is yours truly.The Skin I feel shows when we find something of ours and we want to make a break from what we have been. Gravity is this roller coaster of feelings coming and going all the time. My searches are for the answers that are within us.

It seems that you have used black coal like textures compared to the colorful works of now. Is there a reason that you have added color to your recent works?

I avoid being stuck with a single technique. I see it in great Artists that are references to me, like Antony Gormley and Cai Guo Qiang. If you take a look at the chronology of their work, they do not stay long in a series or technique, they walk in their techniques and series. As my questions are internal, they are feelings, we are often feeling something; other times, on the same day, we are feeling something different. So there is not much change, there is an alternation, sometimes I am in the moment to self-analyze, to understand myself more, then I use black, the colors more oriented to discover. And at other times I am full of the Power to Act, as Nietzsche says, and make an explosion of red with blue on the screen

Is there a special memory in your childhood that made you be an artist?

I am from a family where the first artist is me. I was raised in a house of seven women. I saw those women walking, talking, expressing their feelings. So I developed the desire to show that through art. That’s why women are practically all of my work. In fact, I was not stimulated with technique but rather in the sense of expressing those feelings so exposed and full of strength.

You mentioned that you have four foundations for clarifying life: philosophy, psychology, dialogues focused on faith and art. Could you explain more about how these four foundations affect your life and being an artist?

As I said before, I believe I have that Nietzsche’s Willpower idea in mind, Schopenhauer’s Will, Spinoza’s Power to act and Jung’s psychic energy.

And that we spend our entire lives receiving standards set by culture, church, our geographical location, our family relationships, among other factors. All of them are external factors, this all forms who we are, or as Schopenhauer says in “The World as Will and Representation”, we are a representation of the accumulation of it all, which shapes who we are. And I try to “reveal the feeling”, but each person lives a different phase, a different moment, and my work needs to go over each one of these factors. I need to communicate with someone who is rooted in something cultural, or needs to get rid of something that holds them from the family, or question whether what they do is really theirs. These foundations shape us and I need to connect with each one of them in order to generate a communication, so that a possible revelation of feeling begins.

How do you define yourself as an artist? What is your relationship with art?

I have a phrase that whenever I finish a job or go to an exhibition I try to remember it: “It doesn’t matter to me whether what I do is art or not. It just needs to touch people in some way, if not, what is it for?” So I have a life mission that is to reveal feeling to people, and my works are part of that mission, they have a clear objective, which is to touch a person’s “soul”, intrigue them, instigate them, and make them think about their feeling. This is my relationship with art, clear and objective. But, of course, I cannot deny that when I create any work, I feel free, strong, energetic, my vital energies are at their peak right now. It is something unique, it is my moment, my feeling revealed.

Is there an artwork that you wish to go back and fix some details?

I believe that none of my works is finished, if I think progressively. If I think of techniques, what could I do better, a firmer or more straight line, a smoother curve. But if I answer you in terms of my art, which is exactly the feeling I had at that moment, the way I did it, the way my unconscious worked and defined those lines, curves and colors, it wouldn’t change none. And I would say yes, they are all 100% complete in their goals. They expressed exactly my feeling at that moment, and that’s it, nothing more

What comes to your mind when you get elected and awarded globally? Is there an award or a space that you set up as a goal in the future?

I come from advertising and awards are better than studies to gain market share in that industry. I started to apply for art awards with this same mentality. When I win a prize, naturally I feel very fulfilled, and it just encourages me that I am on the right track and that my goals, my techniques, my vision of art is being respected by curators, jurors and specialists around the world. And yes, there is an award that really motivates me and I’ve been looking to win, which is Art Revolution Taipei. I was a finalist in 2019 and now in 2021, as a favorite for the award. It’s one of those I respectfully would seek to win.

You have 32.1K followers who love your artworks on Instagram. How do you think social media affects the art field?

I am 37 years old and grew up with no internet, without easy access to most things of this kind. And today your art can reach the entire world in one post. Social networks are the best channels for this to happen and today it is one of my best sales channels, partnerships. It is a very powerful tool.

You’ve been recognized in more than 20 countries. Do you have a country that you want to work on your artworks for about 3 months? Where and why?

I’ve been to four continents and there is always that place, culture and people that you identify with the most. I’m flirting with Taipei, New York, Los Angeles and the Netherlands. Taipei for being overdeveloped, having an incredible culture, having beaches for surfing, which is one of the reasons why I still stay in Brazil, as I live a few kilometers from the beach. New York for being one of the largest cultural and artistic centers in the world, Los Angeles for its beautiful beaches and the Netherlands for being located in the center of the world and facilitating all travel logistics.

Describe us about your studio in one word.

Profuse

What topic or subject are you interested in recently? It can be any music, artist, book, social issues or any topics.

Lately I’ve been focused on my new series, which have some artistic performances, I want to put all the music that I have in me. Play multiple instruments, paint blindfolded, etc. Today my research is in two thinkers: Carl Jung and Nietzsche, mainly the question of the psychic Energy that Jung talks about in his book “The Psychic Energy” and mainly the questions of Amor Fati, Eternal Return that Nietzsche mentions in his books: “A Gaia Science “,” Will to Power “and” Thus Zarathustra spoke ”

Is there a new material, genre, or expression technique you want to try?

Yes, I have been using a lot of iron and wood lately. Welding and joinery techniques in my facilities in addition to resin techniques on canvas.

How do you want to be remembered as?

As the artist who lived and revealed his true feeling.

What can we expect from your next works? Could you give us a slight hint?

Lots of performance, installations in iron, wood, resins, large-scale paintings. And a lot of feeling and expressive strength.

Thank you so much for taking the time for the interview. Would you like to say something to the readers of Art Terms Magazine?

I would really like to thank you and congratulate for the rich content and for giving me the opportunity to show a little more of who I am and my work.

These spaces are like prizes, they only strengthen our beliefs that we are on the right path and that we can reach more people with our art. Thank you very much!