“I thought that you could only be an artist when you’re dead, I never thought I could make a living from it.”
The atmosphere at Triton Galleries in Torquay is electric – the whole room has an almost visible shimmer of excitement as art lovers explore the gallery, each wall boasting pieces from Fabiàn Pérez’s new collection, the world-renowned figurative artist. I sit down and talk to the man himself who just a few hours earlier flew into Devon by private helicopter no less and is currently considered as Hollywood’s hottest artistic property.
We’re surrounded by art that oozes passion, romance and the mystery of a city by night and the man sat before me would not look out of place were he to paint himself into any of the given scenes. He sits sipping a glass of Barolo - his face unshaven, wearing a burgundy leather jacket, open necked black shirt and a collection of quirky gold jewellery – the quintessential South American artist.
Fabiàn grew up in the heart of Buenos Aires, Argentina. From a young age, art was part of his life and at just nine years old he fondly remembers making friends and family sit for hours as he sketched and painted them. Growing up in a time of turbulent political upheaval though meant his upbringing was far from conventional. Fabiàn’s father owned a number of nightclubs and brothels, neither of which were welcomed in the city. Constantly hounded by the police his father spent much of his time moving around to keep his business alive.
“It was difficult when I was young because I felt different from all the other kids in the neighbourhood and in the city, we had to hide a lot of things we didn’t want people to know. When I went to school people would ask what my father did, I never knew how to answer. My father would say ‘Tell them I sell cars or something!”
At just 16 years-old Fabiàn’s mother died, sadly, his father struggled to come to terms with her death and three years later took his own life. It was then that Fabiàn returned to something he had already tried twice before in his life: martial arts. He explains how many elements of karate helped him and now influences his art: determination, discipline, energy, and rhythm. “People think it is just punches and kicks but its called an ‘art’ because it is a discipline but is also very expressive.”
As I watch him work the room talking to visitors and collectors alike its easy to see how his warm and charismatic persona instantly puts people at ease, a quality that helps explain his ability to evoke such raw and honest emotion in the subject of his pieces.
“The women in my pictures are working or simply hanging around yet they seem so classy; young girls can’t even walk in high heels anymore. …I started to send a message to the world, people need to get back manners, education and class.”
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In 2001 Fabiàn teamed up with American art publisher Robert Bane and since then he has grown more successful by the day to wide critical acclaim with pieces selling for thousands of pounds - a far cry from the first piece he sold, a sketch on paper with watercolours for 50 liras. He recalls a woman from a German art gallery approaching him when he was living in Italy and she asked how much a piece cost. It was the first time he’d been asked that question and the first time he realised his work might be good enough to sell. “I thought that you could only be an artist when you’re dead, I never thought I could make a living from it.”
At the age of 22 Fabiàn moved to Italy and dedicated much of his time to painting and the writing of his first book ‘Reflections of a dream’. After seven years he moved to Japan for a year before relocating to Los Angeles where he now lives with his wife and four-year-old daughter. With sell out tours in America, Australia and Europe it’s hard to believe that Fabiàn who now speaks with an LA tinge to his strong Spanish accent, arrived in America speaking no English willing to do any job going to make his dreams of being an artist come true.
“I hated it when I got there because it was really confusing to me. But there was still something very attractive to me and that was whether or not I was going to prove myself and make something of myself. I started by getting any job that I could, opening envelopes, modelling – anything I could imagine – and it worked! I tried to put together a book of different resumes telling people ‘What ever you need, I’ll do it!”
Understandably, when Fabiàn is on tour he has little time to explore the places he visits. He told me how he thinks Devon is one of the most beautiful places in England, wealthy and well maintained and how he would love to return in the summer when he can see it properly, not just from the sky! Having lived and travelled all over the world I was interested to know where it is that Fabiàn finds most inspiring. He said that it is Buenos Aires, the city he grew up in but that in big cities today you find the same things – the same problems, the same benefits. “For me when I paint now, I don’t put the name of the city. It’s the people that matter, even if they are from different cultures they have the same feelings, the same essence.”
It has been a landmark year for Fabiàn with a sell out world tour and being named the official artist to the 2010 and the 2012 Olympics and most recently to the Latin Grammy Awards being held in Las Vegas. Artists like Pérez come along once in a lifetime, one American gallery owner confidently proclaimed that Fabiàn is a ‘young master’ and that a lot of his work will end up in museums 100 years from now. At just 43-years-old it is exciting to think about what else is to come from this courageous and talented artist who has also just released a second book called ‘All the Romance we left behind’. A title that I believe encapsulates the feeling behind Fabiàn’s work, and feeling is what you will find. Be it passion; romance, obsession, pain, loss, his work compels you to feel.
Rebecca Millington of Glen King PR/ Marketing Ltd.
