PAINTING WITH A PURPOSE

...from pencil sketches drawn in the South American rainforest, 

to large oil canvases created in his studio...

       "That boy paints and draws all day long. My son the artist," his father would introduce him with a smile since he was a child.  Fernando Antonio Porras Rodriguez was born in Maturín, Venezuela, in June of 1962, to Ana Julia Rodriguez Tortolero de Porras and Jesús Antonio Porras Lander. With a history of artistic talent running deep in the families of both parents, he soon demonstrated his ability to draw and paint as a child, and used it to sketch what surrounded his hometown: the savannas, morichals, and jungles that extended east and south, all the way to the Orinoco.

      Encouraged by his parents, he had visited some of the most important museums in Venezuela, Mexico, and the United States for the first time by age twelve. While living in Maturín, he exhibited portraits and landscapes in juried shows, with artists from Venezuela and the Caribbean, before entering the University of Florida in 1980 where he started studies in Architecture. After the Venezuelan financial crisis and the crash of the bolivar in 1984 - which forced him to move back to Venezuela without completing a master's degree - he started a relationship with the Guarauno People and other indigenous groups of the Orinoco and Amazon river basins. 

      Every trip to the Orinoco River Delta to visit the Warao villages tempted him to try to venture ever farther into the rainforest. However, it was not until his encounter with a small indigenous group of children who had never had contact with the outside world, much less with the magical powers of a pencil, that he was compelled to bring his art and his indigenous friends onto a canvas. Drawing was a way for him to connect with the natives, gaining their interest and respect, while contributing to a record of their culture. Transforming those drawings into oil paintings turned into his way of telling and preserving their stories, while helping create some awareness of their plight. It became the inspiration for him to pursue art as a lifelong career.

      He obtained a Master's Degree in Fine Arts from Radford University, in Virginia, studying under watercolor master Z.L. Feng, who cemented in him his love for portraiture. He went on to teach art for many years at Concord University, in a charming town nestled in the mountains of West Virginia. It was there, from a tiny studio he rented on top of a hill behind the university, that he prepared his first exhibit. His first major solo show opened at Noel Gallery, in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1999. The "Children of the Rainforest" exhibit showcased his "Hidden Series" for the first time. Seventeen of his eighteen works sold in only forty minutes after opening the gallery doors, with his last piece, a three-panel, seven by nine feet oil on canvas, purchased the next morning. This was the first of many sold-out shows to come with B.E. Noel, who becomes Porras' art dealer, mentor, and dear friend of many years.

     In the fall of 2008, B.E. Noel and Porras met gallerist Mark Hachem at his New York gallery with the idea of bringing Porras’ work more into the international light. With many years of experience and a great reputation as an art dealer in the international market, Mark Hachem had founded Galerie Mark Hachem in Paris in 1985, in historic Place des Vosges, and had just opened a beautiful space in New York in 2007 at the corner of Madison and 77th street. One of the most innovative galleries in Paris, it specializes in sculptures and paintings by major modern and contemporary artists associated with important movements such as Cubism, Opt Art, and the Ecole de Nice. Among the artists represented then, the gallery featured Arnaud, Botero, Christo, Corda, Maeder, Mata, Ubaldi, Poles, Rek, Valdes, Vasarely, and the Venezuelan painters Adam, Cruz Diez, Perez Flores, and Soto. Through the years, Mark Hachem has developed a strong reputation as a consultant to public institutions and as art advisor for private and corporate collections. Presenting group and solo exhibitions in New York and Paris, and regularly participating in all major contemporary art fairs, including Basel, Paris, Palm Beach, Miami, Milan, New York, Chicago, Shanghai, Istanbul, India, Moscow, and Singapore, the gallery would give Porras’ work the exposure needed. Hachem loved what he saw in Porras’ work and the motivation and message behind it. He booked him for two solo shows at his galleries in New York and Paris, and took his work to his next venue, the 2008 Toronto International Art Fair in Canada, where they sold Porras’ first work with Mark Hachem Gallery just a few minutes after the fair opened its doors.

     The exhibit in Toronto was the start of a very fruitful business relationship and a great friendship between Porras and Mark and his brothers Alex and Moussa. The chemistry of the group at work during every show resulted in great exhibits, and he was soon welcomed to the team and treated as one more brother. Since 2009, Mark Hachem Gallery, New York, and Galerie Mark Hachem, Paris, have toured Porras’ work to venues around the world with great success. During one of the shows in Palm Beach, a truck bound for New York with Porras’ work had to be re-routed to Florida as the entire Palm Beach exhibit had been sold out in a couple of days. The entire show was hung and sold twice more.

In 2012, with the help of Galerie Mark Hachem, Porras opened a studio near Place des Vosges, in Paris, to paint and exhibit. This gave Porras the opportunity to use the beautiful natural light that has drawn so many other artists to Paris. 

     The inspiration for his work and the power of his message has not been derailed by his success. He visits the rainforest as often as possible. He insists, with great conviction, on delivering to the audience pieces that bring to mind the delicate situation of cultures about to vanish forever, thanks to our hunger for the riches under their feet. "Art with a purpose," read the title of the article welcoming Porras’ first exhibit of the Hidden Series to the United States. An incredible journey, that of ideas born out of the rough sketches inspired by amazing individuals in the rainforests in South America, to the ease of North Carolina, to the hustle and excitement of New York, to the cobblestone streets of romantic Paris. 

Throughout his work, Fernando Porras reveals a beautiful portrait of the rainforest and its amazing peoples. For over twenty-five years, he has been telling their story, bringing lectures to schools, universities, museums, and other institutions in America and Europe. Now, for the past four years, he has been compiling the stories in a book of short stories - some of which can be read on this website.

To schedule lectures, please contact us at FernandoPorrasArt@gmail.com