ARTIST BIO
Arcenio Martin Campos attended New Mexico State University for studio arts, the University of New Mexico for art history, and received a Certificate of Painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He began drawing on his own as a child, and between schools acquired much of his fine art education from independent study and private instruction of the human figure. Mr. Campos began his teaching career conducting classes in cast drawing whilst still in New Mexico. He has given lectures on anatomy, figure drawing, and painting and has facilitated open figure drawing groups in both Albuquerque and Philadelphia. His work has received numerous awards and has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad. Mr. Campos has taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Fleisher Art Memorial, Winslow Art Center, and the Washington Studio School. He currently teaches private lessons, online courses at Kara Bullock Art School, and workshops throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa, and New Zealand |
ARTIST STATEMENT
As a child I drew the things that represented what I wanted to be; trucks to drive, jets and helicopters to fly. As a youth I began to draw people, especially girls – pretty girls I desired as much as I had desired trucks and jets in my early childhood. Drawing pretty girls I wanted to be with eventually evolved into drawing the human figure for the sake of fascination with what makes us people. The next thing I knew, I no longer needed to be a truck driver or a jet fighter; I was an artist – an artist who focused on the figure.
For nearly twenty years I studied the physical components of human beings – all of them; all componenets, all people, not just the pretty ones. Lately, all of these people I have been drawing, and many of their respective parts, have been stirring, growing restless. They are no longer content to simply be portrayed on paper, mylar, canvas or panel. They have urgent stories to tell. They strive to be part of a world.
This is a new development for me. It is at this moment that the thousands of loose body parts floating around inside my head are beginning to come together – not just as the completed figures I have been drawing for years – but as individual lives that are trying to complete themselves and come into existence.
As a child I drew the things that represented what I wanted to be; trucks to drive, jets and helicopters to fly. As a youth I began to draw people, especially girls – pretty girls I desired as much as I had desired trucks and jets in my early childhood. Drawing pretty girls I wanted to be with eventually evolved into drawing the human figure for the sake of fascination with what makes us people. The next thing I knew, I no longer needed to be a truck driver or a jet fighter; I was an artist – an artist who focused on the figure.
For nearly twenty years I studied the physical components of human beings – all of them; all componenets, all people, not just the pretty ones. Lately, all of these people I have been drawing, and many of their respective parts, have been stirring, growing restless. They are no longer content to simply be portrayed on paper, mylar, canvas or panel. They have urgent stories to tell. They strive to be part of a world.
This is a new development for me. It is at this moment that the thousands of loose body parts floating around inside my head are beginning to come together – not just as the completed figures I have been drawing for years – but as individual lives that are trying to complete themselves and come into existence.
Podcasts and Media
The Undraped Artist Podcast
Artist Jeff Hein interviews some of the world’s most accomplished and gifted artists about their work, process, philosophy and experience.
Artist Jeff Hein interviews some of the world’s most accomplished and gifted artists about their work, process, philosophy and experience.
John Dalton Podcast
Ep 113 – Martin Campos : Flow Rider
Ep 113 – Martin Campos : Flow Rider
A film by John Thorton
A film by John Thorton
Art Watch: The beauty of Chester County
Lele Galer, May 31st, 2016 Review of Solo Exhibition at Church Street Gallery |
all images © Arcenio Martin Campos, 2014-2023