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Artist Biographies >> Octavio Ocampo
Octavio Ocampo was born in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico on February 28, 1943. Growing up in a family of designers, he first studied art as a boy. Professor Salvador Zuniga directed the local art school in his hometown. At the art school, Ocampo constructed "papier mache" figures for floats, altars, and ornaments that were used during carnival parades and other festivals. By doing this, he learned about art composition, materials, and techniques. In high school, Ocampo painted murals for the Preparatory School and the City Hall of Celaya. Ruth Riviera, daughter of artist and muralist Diego Rivera, and Maria Luisa "La China" Mendoza saw his work and encouraged him to attend the School of Painting and Sculpture of the National Fine Art Institute.
The talents of Octavio Ocampo were not limited to painting and sculpture, but also extended to acting and dancing. While at the Art Institute of San Francisco, he studied all these disciplines and pursued both a film and theater career. In 1976, he began to devote himself solely to painting and sculpture. He now works primarily in the metamorphic style – using a technique of superimposing and juxtaposing realistic and figurative details within the images that he creates.
"I am fascinated by the forces of Good and Evil and the Sun (male) and the Moon (female). I live in Tepoztlan, which is a mountainous region southwest of Mexico City, and is considered to be one of the most magical places on earth. Like the Bermuda triangle, there is a strange and unexplained, but extremely powerful, confluence of magnetic forces seemingly concentrated in the Tepozteco Mountain." – Octavio Ocampo
One has to look long and hard at Octavio’s paintings. The longer one looks at his work, the more that is revealed. Faces come into focus at a distance and metamorphose into something else entirely in close up. Flowers become faces, mountains speak to each other, and mourners over a coffin become the face of Christ. His works are full of symbolism, endlessly fascinating, each revealing a new facet, different to each viewer.
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