“A lot of artists want to do something controversial and have people talk about them—shock art. But I don’t want to create images of despair and fear because I think there’s enough out there. You can move people with love or with fear. I want to move them with love.”—Romero Britto
For some, Brazilian artist Romero Britto’s saturated, Day-Glo creations represent South Florida as much as coconut trees and stone crabs. For others, his work is symbol of commercial art at its most banal. But everyone agrees that he has achieved incredible success, building a brand that sits comfortably astride his creative process.
The onetime law student from a poor family in Recife arrived in Miami in 1987, working in a sandwich shop and cutting grass while toiling over his canvases at night. Everything changed in 1989, when Absolut’s marketing genius, Michel Roux, selected the relatively unknown artist to design a bottle for the company’s famous ad campaign. Britto’s work reflected the tropical colors Americans were seeing on Miami Vice. This was no longer the gritty Miami of the Mutiny bar, but instead the Miami of CocoWalk. Britto painted a picture of the town seemingly straight from a Convention & Visitors Bureau playbook.
Britto's Greatest Hits
