Ubirajara Mendes

Ubirajara Mendes is a native of the State of Sergipe in northern Brazil. He grew up in poverty, but in a family notable for their artistic talent. His grandparents and parents were painters. His cousin Jenner Augusto and his brother Felix Mendes went on to achieve Brazilian and international recognition, and his son Byron is continuing this tradition, currently exhibiting successfully in the USA and several European countries.

Ubirajara moved to Rio de Janeiro as a young man and began painting full time in 1973. By 1976 he had exhibited personally throughout Brazil and in Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay and  Argentina, and his paintings were represented in exhibitions and commercial galleries in the United States and Japan. He received many commissions from celebrities and dignitaries, including the then President of Paraguay and the Venezuelan Minister of Defence, and 140 of his paintings decorated the famous Hotel Flamengo Palace in Rio. The art critic Prof. Rogerio Pfaltgraff wrote in 1976 that he was one of the greatest recent discoveries in Brazilian art,

Ubirajara’s early paintings were mainly expressionist landscapes, with the sea and lakes as frequent themes. The Rio Tribune described his work as “magnificent, full of light and colour”. He also became well known for his deeply felt paintings of the floods that caused such suffering among the poor. Prof Rogerio wrote “this atmosphere of poverty, the misery of the people, his paintings are a social cry of denunciation”.

In recent years he has shunned publicity and rarely exhibits and lives quietly in his studio preferring to paint commissions. His work can be found in overseas galleries, particularly in Europe. Ubirajara’s style has evolved; he continues to explore the harmonious combination of rich colours but his recent paintings are abstract, imposing and with remarkable expressionism.