"From Chile to Australia: The Artistic Odyssey of Jose Bacarreza"

We are excited to introduce Jose Bacarreza, a contemporary Chilean painter who has found a new home in Perth, Australia. His work, a fascinating blend of realism, surrealism, and abstraction, delves into the dualities of the human experience and the mysteries of the subconscious. In this interview, Jose shares his artistic journey, influences, and what brought him to Australia, where he continues to thrive as an artist. His participation in Chile Sentido exhibition is a unique opportunity to experience a piece of Chilean culture through his deeply evocative paintings. Dive in and get to know Jose’s creative process and the stories behind his art.

THE INTERVIEW

ME IN SIMPLE WORDS:

My name is Jose Bacarreza and I’m a contemporary Chilean painter who calls Perth my home now. My mum said to me one time I was born like this.

MY STORY AND HOW DO I GET INTO THE ART WORLD

I have been doing this most of my life, ever since I can remember. For me it’s more of a condition of being rather than a decision, like a big call from the beyond. Only comparable to the priesthood, as they are devoted to the church I am devoted to painting. So for me get into art was pretty natural I guess, it was already there, inside of me… in my heart. 

I grew up in a big family of 8 children, 3 brothers and 4 sisters, bloodsiblings; my parents are still married, they are like legends of the marriage, I don’t really know exactly how many years but its around 52 aniversary or so, maybe more. We are very united, the house was more like a Zoo than something else hahaha, I love them all.

Anyway, back into art I would say my very first fan and promoter was my mother, she is my hero and my inspiration. She is an artist also and I remember seeing her painting ever since I was very little, the old house walls were dressed in her beautiful paintings, all of different periods of her, you can see the transitions and also investigations, she is very good. 

"The Roman at the Stake" and "Blue Guitarrist"

*This two paintings belong to his mum, Adela Ovalle, mid-70´s

Jose's path into art was shaped by his childhood, with his mother playing a key role in nurturing his creativity. His vivid memories of being introduced to oil painting by his mother reflect the powerful influence of family and environment. It's a touching reminder that the seeds of creativity are often planted early, and for José, they have grown into a lifelong devotion to painting.

The first time, I came across a canvas was because of her. I remember vividly, I was curious about this expression my mum was practicing and I wanted to try. The first time, I asked her about it she says straight away no, I was too little I reckon and she mentioned something about the oils and how toxic they are bla bla, then she brought paper and pencils to me, easy way. I remember the smell of the oils, it was so different and atractive, the fragrance transport me imediately to my childhood. Chile was in curfew and dictatorship at this time, It wasn’t easy to find good international art supplies back in those days, so she probably was doing her moves and getting this high standarts oil brands and mediums to get the work done, magic.

There was a second time that I asked her a couple of years after and this time she agreed. The class was very simple, like the way she is, she said to me a little bit of this a little bit of that, reffering to oils, linceed oil and mediums and then start to paint. She passed me all her equipment, easel, oil and brushes, she had this woodbox from a bottle of wine and everything was there, the pandora box of painting. Very important she said to me use them with care cause they are very expensive, and that’s it, then she left. I was naked infront of my first white canvas, we both were and that’s how all start.   

WHAT BROUGHT ME TO AUSTRALIA AND HOW I HAVE BEEN LIVING MY ART HERE

Well this is a funny story, this happend in the year 2016 in Chile. I was listening to Tame Impala, the Aussie band originally from Perth where I live. These guys are very popular in Chile, the thing is that I was checking some info, reading about them and doing some research in the internet, cause I love to learn about things, I’m also a geek at heart. So I was checking and suddenly I read that they are from Perth WA, I was automatically thinking, what is Perth and where is it? Never heard about it before. So I notice that Perth It is the most isolated city from another nearby city in the world and that was really cool because I wanted to go far and away. I was tired of Chile and feeling stuck artisticly, I wanted to go to a place that no one can reach me easily and let my art blossom, and that’s what I did, I came to the downunder. Actually, thanks to this far away condition of Perth, the covid was very little here, then the territory of WA closed its fronteers so we didn’t have any, we were having a normal life when the rest of the world was in lockdown, we are an island into an island kind of, super isolated.

It’s fascinating how a moment of curiosity about a band led Jose to one of the most isolated cities in the world, Perth. His desire to escape artistic stagnation and explore new horizons aligns with his need for artistic freedom. His story highlights how place and environment can greatly influence an artist’s journey, and in Perth, Jose found the perfect canvas for his creativity to flourish.

Art here is very well respected, if you are an artist you’ll be treated like a doctor. The art world is well developed and accessible to everyone, there is a huge market, culture, competitions of all kinds all the time, etc. I’m enjoying here and surfing the wave as it comes in the art world, I feel very welcommed. I have been participating in joint exhibitons, markets, doing my Solo shows, exhibiting in the Western Australia Maritime Museum, one of my highlights, and also running my workshops with my company Bubbles & Brushes that alows me to stay in contact with people that is something I love and as an artist in the studio we are all lone ragers, it’s a pretty lonely career so this option of teaching what I love feed my soul from the bond of the local people, I’m very greatfull to everyone for that, makes me extremely happy.

TALKING ABOUT MY ART STYLE AND PERSONAL SIGN.

I personally really don’t like labels in this field, I would say I am a figurative painter who includes different techniques and styles in my paintings, it deppends on the art work. Some areas are more realistic, some more impressionist, some more abstract; the brush strokes, turn different during the painting, sometimes it is very fluid and watery and I see some abstraction and some others are more layerfull with impastos and textures, more meaty. It’s a mix of styles I guess, I have realism, surrealism, impresionism, expresionism, bit of abstraction in some paintings, I don’t know, a bunch of things. What I do know is that I’m pretty much figurative. 

My artwork primarily takes the form of large-scale oil paintings. I use realistic imagery to invoke unseen worlds, inviting viewers to explore irrational yet harmonic phenomena. I walk the tightrope between opposing states of the human experience, fear and peace, freedom and captivity, youth and the end of life, and the natural and the supernatural are just some of the dualistic elements I invite into the canvas. I take a calculated approach to parts of my work, and others manifest themselves intuitively. By manipulating color, brushstrokes, composition, and perspective, my paintings bring the viewer in through their beauty, only to discover and contemplate complexities beyond the surface. 

My process is painterly and organic. I explore contrast, color, composition, and texture using multiple layers of paint. Taking pictures, I select inspirational images and abandon their straightforward interpretation as the painting evolves. 

Bridging the organic and inorganic worlds, I weave coexistence and enchantment, mixing pigment with sand, dirt, grass, and other found materials. Utilizing varying thicknesses of varnish, I let opacity and light dance throughout the image, compelling viewers to accept and contemplate a dualistic, supernatural world. 

The driving force behind my art is to create a story that becomes accessible, alive, and effervescent. When looking at my paintings, there is never an ending or a foregone conclusion, simply an open portal. www.josebacarreza.com.

Jose hesitates to put a label on his art, which shows just how fluid and ever-changing his style is. His work brings together elements of realism, surrealism, and abstraction, reflecting his exploration of both the visible and invisible aspects of life. This mix allows him to express a wide range of human experiences, making his paintings not only visually striking but also deeply meaningful.

OTHER ARTISTS, REFERENCES AND ART MOVEMENTS.

Here I will say that the source of references is huge, from all the classic painters that I learn from my mom and dad´s stories, and all the conversations I was listening when I was a kid because my parents love art, it was a varnish of culture to me. When I was a boy, I remember my dad as a catholic  person always talking about Michelangelo and his divine marble hammer touched by  the grace of God, Sistine Chapel, etc. He has a lot of feelings for that period  and all the classic artists from the reneassence, also from the baroque, everything involved with religious art mostly, included music (Passions composed by Bach). I just learned all of this things from him. He used to have a book of the restoration of The Pietà over the table of his room. Also, I used to take the Bible on the bedside table and looking at inside some colourfull images of Caravaggio paintings, I remember very well, I was a little boy just looking at this paintings inside the Bible, incredible work. There was a page with a painting called The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, that is such a masterwork. Thomas’s face shows surprise as Jesus holds his hand and guides it into the wound, it’s just outsanding, perfection made painting, creepy also, typical of chiaroscuro. The detail of the finger of Saint Thomas inside the body of Christ it’s insane, just then I discovered the painting of Caravaggio, and I was like 7 years old but I remember perfectly, that detail shocked me. 

My mum talking about Van Gogh, the impressionist, more her style, mentioning some Picasso a couple of times, they both like these ones though. She is more the Monet and Van Gogh girl I recon, she is looking at the colour definetly, it is more loose. Mum used to read to us in the studio of the house La Fontaine Fables, when we were kids. They have this huge old edition book they get from grandpa, I guess, with full page illustrations of Gustav Doré, that book is mine now. It’s huge, like 40 x 30cm or so, and very old. Finally, all this things leaving a print on me forever, I can see the influence.

On the other hand my brothers, one day I was like 7-8 years old and I saw this comic book on the school bag of my brother, a leather black Nike one, the comic was Anarko, from Jucca. It is a legendary comic book from the Chilean underground, really cool, with funny stories in Valparaiso. All in black and white, this anarchist street antisocial trusher hating the world and everyone in it, doing the mess around. Incredible drawings, super talented artist Jucca. I was in first grade or second no more, and this comic book impact me in a very good way. That opened the world of comic books to me and I got crazy about it. The death of Superman came out and that was revolutionary in the field in 1992, I was 9 or 10 years old. Then, I started to get involve and fall into the abyss of that world that never ends, its eternal.

I learned a lot about comic book artists, writters, I started my collection and I have thousands; that’s not a joke, Lobo, Batman, The Preacher, among others. I can keep going for pages because this is a huge collection I have, but one of the ones that really impress me back in the days was the quality of the artwork in the Kingdom Come, painted in gouache by Alex Ross, that is the next level, every page is a master work. Also El Incal from Jodorowsky drawn by Moebious, Sin City by Frank Miller, Lobo drawn by Martin Emond, Spawn by Todd Mcfarlane. This are the ones that pop to my head inmediately now I’m writing, but there is a lot more, these are blockbusters. I still sometimes buy a comic book once a year, now they call them graphic novels but they are the same, they just join the stories all together in one book and it looks bigger hahaha that’s the trick. The two ones I get not long ago was Maus by Art Spiegelman, and the new edition of The Eternauta from 1957. A really cool story located in the old Buenos Aires, Argentina. Both master works. I know they exist since I was a boy but now I´m a growing up boy so I can get the special edition. Then all this movies that I was watching at home from my old brothers, they showig up everytime with a different VHS movie to watch, some of them were for over 18. I remember passing through the VHS player movies like Akira, Ghost in The Shell, Ninja Scroll, all from the anime world. Plus all the classic fantasy ones like The labryht, The Princes Bride and the unforgetable Never Ending Story, all this things shaped me in the childhood, these are my influences. Nowadays, I admire the work of many artists, it is difficult to tell cause the refferences change through the time for me deppends the work I’m doing, I am very versatile when it’s about refferences. Let’s say that latelly I have been liking the work of Romero Ressendi, Manuel Monedero, Tade Stika and Carl Spitzberg among others. One of the lates I have been looking is Jenny Saville, I love her work, she is so talented, raw. 

Jose’s artistic influences span centuries, from the Renaissance masters to contemporary artists. His reflections on Caravaggio and Michelangelo show his deep appreciation for classical art, while his love for comic books and modern graphic novels adds an unexpected layer to his artistic personality. This diverse range of influences illustrates the richness of Jose’s visual language and how his childhood encounters with art left a lasting imprint on his work.

RECENT PROYECTS

My latest project was a painting called The Cave. I made that one in Bali last year and it is still in the Museum Puri Lukisan in Ubud. That painting is very intense. An x-ray to my pscique at that point, a self portrait based in The Allegory of the Cave, or Plato’s Cave. It collect ideas and symbolisms inspire in experiences lived by me the last year in Ubud. The painting tells us about the dream world, about different perspectives of the subconcious. Talks about what we can’t see in the outside world but we have it inside, storms, ghosts and witchcraft from the past, present and future. A big orchestra of chaos that sometimes doesn’t let us sleep or make us hide ourselves in bad habits, not to face it. Angels and demonds, diferent cultures, Ubud spirits, a muse with hope is waiting for the sun to go down and the protagonist with covered eyes who cannot see the exit telling us that the way out is actually through the internal journey, the way of the soul, the inside labyrinth of the mind.

"The Cave" reveals Jose’s ability to delve into his own psyche and express his inner world through painting. His exploration of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the subconscious is a testament to the depth of his work. The painting is not just a visual piece but a window into Jose’s personal reflections, experiences, and the universal themes of self-discovery and inner turmoil.

ABOUT MY WORK IN THE EXHIBITION CHILE SENTIDO

This painting call The Pincoya. She is, according to local mythology in Chiloé Island, a female "water spirit" of the Chilotan Seas. The Pincoya is said to have long hair, be of incomparable beauty, be cheerful and sensual, and rise from the depths of the sea. Naked and pure, she personifies the fertility of marine species. Through her ritual dance she provides the chilote (resident of Chiloé) with an abundance or deficiency of fish and seafood. If she performs her dance facing the sea, it means that these shores will have an abundance of fish. When she dances facing the mountains, her back to the sea, seafood will be scarce. Chiloean mythology is appreciative of the Pincoya, believed to be good, beautiful and humanitarian. 

A young teenager Pincoya is shown dancing in the shore bringing the fish to the coast, doing the magic spell facing the ocean, enjoying herself inbetween rocks and surrounded of local algae from Chile(cochayuyo), very characteristic from the Southern coast of Chile. 

WHAT MEANS FOR ME PARTICIPATE IN THIS EXHIBITION?

It’s very important because I can show in first person through my work a Little piece of my lovely motherland Chile, tell a story that shows the Aussies a little bit about Chile, about us and about me. It is a great opportunity to join all the Chileans who make art in Australia and share our stories with Australians and better than that, do it through beautiful human expression beyond the language that we call art. 

I would say to every Australian who goes to see the show, that just let yourself go with the flow, navigate the exhibitión calmly without thinking too much, just open your heart and feel it all. Eventually your going to feel a little breeze of who we are and where we came from. Little country, strong culture.

Well If you reach here without getting bored reading this I would like to say thanks for your time and interest. Keep in touch and follow me on instagram @josebacarreza, also you can see my work on my webpage www.josebacarreza.com. 

See you in the next show.

Viva Chile!

Cheers!

Don’t miss the chance to explore the Chile Sentido exhibition, where José Bacarreza and other talented Chilean artists will showcase their powerful work. It's an opportunity to connect with the rich cultural heritage of Chile through art. Let Jose's painting, The Pincoya, transport you to the mythical shores of Chiloé, as his vision bridges two worlds. We invite you to feel the essence of Chile and immerse yourself in this vibrant artistic celebration. See you there!