Dreams and memories fade and change over time, German-born and Canadian-adopted artist Jeanine Brito (1993), who bases her pictorial research on the evanescence of dreams, knows this well. The use of photographic cropping and the compositions of her acrylic works reflect her training in fashion and design, which is also evident in the meticulous attention the artist pays to detail.
The large canvases made by Brito tell fragments of a memory or a dream, charged with drama and theatricality. Janine is often the main subject of her own works, in which she experiences scenes that are seemingly everyday but conceal surreal and unexpected details. The rational perception of the world is completely challenged by anomalous elements, as in the work “Everything I’ve Ever Wanted,” in which a three-tiered pink cake is stuffed with meat and fish. Another example is the work “Everything I did, I did for love” in which the protagonist is depicted naked on a stool, holding a pigeon in her hands. As you approach the canvas, you notice the blood gushing from her eyes like tears and the disturbing detail of her missing big toe.




The ordinary and the extraordinary are placed in dialogue, disorienting the audience who, uncertain and amazed, admires his canvases. The use of imagination and distortion of reality are distinctive elements of Surrealism, a pictorial current that Jeanine Brito draws on, looking particularly to the works of René Magritte. Some elements used by the artist seem to come from the metaphysical imagery of Giorgio De Chirico, such as the statuesque positions of the subjects and the feeling of being suspended in a moment frozen in time, desolate and dramatic.
What intrigues and makes Janine Brito’s canvases special is the component of deception. Some of the recurring colors such as pink and red, princely blue, and shimmering gold – covered at the end by glossy paint to add plasticity – contribute to an environment that attracts the viewers, relaxes and places them in a fairy-tale sphere, which is then completely disrupted.





