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Ernane Cortat

"I strive to infuse my paintings with joy above all, which can be seen through the chosen colors. They are my principal element of creation; for me a color possesses at least a variation of four tones. The content of my work is almost always religious; I am Catholic and this has a great influence upon my life. I represent symbols minutely composed by thousands of tiny, colorful points.

"I was raised in a family of painters and my brother, Sylvio Cortat, was one of the people who influenced me most. Even though Sylvio also developed naïf artworks, we moved toward different tendencies, and my work is very different from his. It was he who encouraged me to begin to dedicate myself more to painting, which only happened when I moved to the US in 1984. I am a psychologist and I never stopped being a painter-psychologist.

"It was in the US that I began feeling more secure about my own work and started to receive invitations for innumerable exhibitions. I met a lot of interesting people and enriched my knowledge of the arts. I am in constant contact with the North American and Latin American markets, participating in exhibitions, although I continue to live in Brazil."

Beyond countless exhibitions in Brazil, Cortat has participated in showings in Spain, Italy, Colombia, US, Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados.