“Jc Bravo ” Macho Men

The series of works "Macho Men" by Latin American Juan Carlos Bravo explores the neurotic culture of machismo and questions this current and complex identity issue. The images convey the artist's ironic approach to the role of gender as a cultural construction; its rules and norms,   a paradigm that has been assimilated, reinforced and sanctioned by the cultural guidelines of society.

Since the arrival of the European, Latin Americans have sought their cultural, social and economic standards in the West, a search that has unequivocally influenced the matter of gender and how men and women relate to each other. Roles that have been inculcated in the home from childhood are promoted in the media through movies, TV, comics and magazines and children learn from the athletes, actors, models and superheroes they so enthusiastically emulate. But what happens when these kids fail to meet the expectations of fame, success and beauty that are nurtured and promoted by these characters? A sense of failure that is often overwhelming sets in, typically the kind of conflicts that Bravo is particularly interested in painting, as he penetrates deeply into the pain-stricken image of the vulnerable hero.

Born in Ica, Peru in 1974, Juan Carlos Bravo moved to the United States as a young boy. He says that his "life in a decadent third world country, whipped by the violence of the Shining Path terrorist movement,  coupled with the experience of a sexual awakening in the midst of a gender revolution in a fully laden American culture " have served to keep his memory filled with images that he now seeks to express through his painting.

It is no coincidence therefore that his work plays with the notion of the super hero to accentuate and emphasize the contrast between the stereotyped man who dares not act, think or say what he really feels. A man paralyzed by fear. Ironically, he uses characters like Captain America, a boxer or an icon of American culture like "Superman", to tell his story. The portrayal of the "iron man" becomes even more attractive because of his "immigrant" status, of extraterrestrial origin, a man who has crossed the threshold of acceptance in the United States and who, like Clark Kent and his alter ego, allows the immigrant to identify with two cultures, that of his country of origin and his country of residence.

"I think that my cabezones” (big headed characters) as he calls them, “express the feeling of always aiming higher, aspiring for more and yet never attaining what we really want. It is the condition of man in this consumer world," says Juan Carlos Bravo.  A Florida International University (FIU) graduate, he draws his inspiration on the visual arts, art history and pop culture. His portraits of men, women and children with exaggerated and disproportionate physical features provoke a scathing critique of the models promoting distorted standards and unrealistic expectations of life. His characters personify abundance and the big noses are a symbol of impotence and emotional conflict, however, when we look at them, all that we see are little beings,  like helpless and vulnerable children.