When Tiago Azevedo graduated in 2009 with a Master’s Degree in Architecture, he never thought his life would do a 180-degree turn years later when he revived his childhood passion for painting. Now based in New York City, the internationally acclaimed architect has an impressive resume which includes various five-star hotels in Europe. Still, it was his career as a Pop-Surrealist painter that catapulted him to stardom.
Azevedo has captivated the public with exhibitions across the world, from Dubai to London, and reached even bigger audiences with his painting tutorials on YouTube – where he recently crossed the 100K view mark. Two of his most watched videos are the biographies of Italian Renaissance painters Giotto and Titian. Azevedo revels in sharing the Old Masters with his followers, deciphering their secrets and their long-lost techniques. Through serendipity, promoting art history to our social media-centered generation became one of Azevedo’s biggest achievements. Hieronymus Bosch and Frida Kahlo are other examples of famous painters in his art history video series, which also features contemporary artists such as Kehinde Wiley, who painted the portrait of former President Barack Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and Mark Ryden, one of the leading figures of the contemporary art movement Pop-Surrealism, of which Azevedo is also part.
In recent years, auction houses and galleries have tested strategies for selling Old Masters works, from social media marketing to celebrity partnerships. Most have failed in achieving a sustained interest of millennials and Gen Z in the art world – at least until digital art and NFTs started to change the nature of art ownership. “Great video,” “really educational” and “nice tribute to the greatest painter ever” are some of the comments on Azevedo’s art history videos for YouTube. His channel attracts a particularly younger audience; according to a representative of the painter over 70% of his audience on YouTube are between 18 and 34 years old. If these numbers are anything to go by, new generations have not lost interest in learning about the historical and social dimensions of art history and classical art.
Azevedo’s style blends classical techniques from the Renaissance, Baroque and Pre-Raphaelite periods with a contemporary aesthetic, like his unmistakable signature: distinctly augmented anatomical features, such as the cheekbones and the eyes. Some of his most celebrated works illustrate classic stories from Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm. The latter were included in his first book and displayed in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre.
Paying tribute to his idols and influences, Azevedo found a unique approach to educating young people about art – with bite-size content, delivered authentically and accurately.
