Octavio Ocampo is a Mexican art director, surrealist painter and sculptor. He currently works primarily in the metamorphic style - using a technique of superimposing and juxtaposing realistic and figurative details within the images that he creates. Now Ocampo works and resides in Tepoztlan, north of Mexico City.
Background
Octavio Ocampo was born on February 28, 1943 in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico. His father, Rafael Angel Ocampo, was an engineer, mechanic and electrician. In his spare time he was a designer and painter. His mother was a homemaker with artistic skills, an actress and did elaborate knitting.
Education
Octavio Ocampo studied art from early childhood. He studied at the renowned San Carlos Art School in Mexico. At art school, Ocampo constructed papier mache figures for floats, altars, and ornaments that were used during carnival parades and other festivals. In high school Ocampo painted murals for the Preparatory School and the City Hall of Celaya. Then Ruth Rivera, daughter of artist and muralist Diego Rivera, encouraged him to attend the School of Painting and Sculpture of the National Fine Art Institute. Ocampo studied there from 1961 to 1965.
His talents were not limited to painting and sculpture, but he also extended them to acting and dancing. At the Art Institute of San Francisco, Ocampo studied all these disciplines and graduating in 1974.
Career
Octavio Ocampo moved to the city of Tepoztlan Morelos in Mexico when he had been working as an art director. He directed more than 100 movies. Ocampo was also an actor and had been in 10 movies. He had also worked on five Mexican soap operas and acted in 10 theatre plays.
Ocampo began to devote himself solely to painting and sculpture in 1976. He works primarily in the metamorphic style - using a technique of superimposing and juxtaposing realistic and figurative details within the images that he creates.
Celebrity portraits for which Ocampo has been commissioned in the United States include President Jimmy Carter (commissioned by President Lopez Portillo and was presented as a gift from the United Mexican States), Jane Fonda, Cher (for the front and back covers of her latest album), and Cesar Chavez.
In addition, Ocampo took part in both personal and collective exhibitions in the cities of Mexico, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Western Europe and the Arab East.
Octavio Ocampo now works and resides in Tepoztlan, north of Mexico City.
Views
Quotations:
"I am fascinated by the forces of Good and Evil and the Sun (male) and the Moon (female). I live in Tepoztlan, which is a mountainous region southwest of Mexico City and is considered to be one of the most magical places on earth. Like the Bermuda Triangle, there is a strange and unexplained but extremely powerful, confluence of magnetic forces seemingly concentrated in the Tepozteco Mountain."
"My philosophy is that we live in various universes that are parallel to each other so I showcase that on my paintings."
Personality
The talents of Octavio Ocampo are not limited to painting and sculpture, but also extended to acting and dancing.