Ivan de Oliveira Afrobrazilian Arts-studio's photostream

Ivan was born in August 15, 1952 in Cachoeira, Bahia, Brazil. It is a city of strong African descendance of 99% Black and considered the center of Brazil's cultural santuary. At the age of 13, his interests turned to the arts while helping his father in the restorations of Baroque churches around the region, especially in the major Baroque Church in his home town, where the Museum o f the Alfais is also located. At 16, he moved to Salvador, capital of the state to pursue the arts on his own. During 1980’s, Ivan participated in several groups in the defense of Afro-Bahia culture as a visual programmer, His vision of the future and his activist nature resulted in police persecution, which was escalating against the Black community at that time. The next seven years of his life he spent in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in voluntary exile. Ivan's art reflects the wrongs and injustice against the community for the dissemination of "The Block Afros" or community Afro-Bahia, based on the carnival, after years of struggle under a political climate against the Afro-Brazilians.
When he returned to Brazil he went to live in his native town, where he became President of the Association of Popular Artists of the Center for History of Salvador. After his term was over the, Ivan became President for the Association of Artists and Cultural Presenters of the City of Cachoeira for a period of two years. During his mandate he created several projects; Embrace The Paraguassu River, in defense of the Environmental Preservation I and II and Week of the Art and Culture of he City of Cachoeira. As an artist he produced a range of work in protest of the discrimination, The Execution of Peter Both, The Case Floket and The Judgment of the Bad Men, who offended the God Olorum.

At the end of 1990, Ivan isolated himself completely from the community to concentrate on his easel and painting.
However, he still had eyes for administration and the desk that was next to the easel in his small art studio, was a constant reminder. Being a man of free spirit and passion for the cultures, Ivan returned to the small desk to give life to others artistic and social projects.
In 1994 he was instrumental in creating The International Bienam-Bicentennial Afro-American of Culture (Arts and Seminar) composed by twelve people called Body of Work. In 1995 Ivan traveled to the United States to campaign for the project Bienam II. In this country he met the professor of Capoeira and Black activist Dennis Newsome, and Ruth Watson, the leader of the Pan African Association-San Diego, Duane Bradford with whom he shared ideas about the racism that still existed among North and South America. In the academic scope, he counted on the support from various institutions such as: Pan African Association-San Diego CA, SDSU-San Diego State University - Department of Romance Languages-University of Missouri-Columbia. Six months later, Ivan returned to Brazil bringing with him a select group of artists, professors, intellectuals and social scientists. During the celebration of the II Bienam, in August 1996, approximately two thousand people participated. Today, the project Bienam is Limbo for lack of financial resources. Ivan currently resides in Pennsylvania, USA pursuing his painting and writing, but is always aware of the social phenomenon's that surround him.