OCEAN CITY — Oil painter Paul Fuentes brings his exhibit featuring people, places and things, to the Ocean City Arts Center March 2-31. A “Meet the Artist” reception will be 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 13.
Fuentes will exhibit several of his portraits of famous people such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and actor John Wayne. In addition, he has painted beautiful images of flowers, landscapes and average people in settings such as the beach and city park.
A graduate of The Tyler School of Art and Architecture of Temple University with a BFA, magna cum laude, Fuentes moved to New York where his paintings and illustrations appeared in national ads and publications including The New York Times. He worked in broadcast advertising and promotions at NBC and later HBO. He became a creative director at HBO where he began to direct. Fuentes says of his celebrity portraits, “Working with celebrities led to a series of portraits exploring identity and the nature of fame. People are often depicted in exaggerated costumes creating an obvious illusion. Replacing familiar contexts with new ones, history as we know it becomes fiction promoting viewers to create their own narratives about the works, suggesting that image and even our own identity is completely changeable.”
For further information go to www.oceancityartscenter.org; or call (609) 399-7628.