Like ME
Gallery Q
100 College Ave., #100
Oct 6, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Cristiano F. Lopes’ paintings from the series Like Me will be exhibited at Gallery Q through the month of October. Lopes is a Brazilian visual artist living in Buffalo, NY and Sao Palo, Brazil. As a multicultural artist he is interested in the ways in which the internet breaks down cultural and political borders and barriers particularly through the use of self portraiture, or “selfies,” as a form of communication. “Like the internet, my work has no nationalities and is in constant revolution leading to different connections,” states Lopes. While much of his work deals with gender and sexuality through appropriated imagery, his portraits aim to represent the human condition. Lopes says, “I’m a visual artist interested in people, the complexity of human existence is reflected on the multi-layered aspect of my work.” In his series Like Me he appropriates internet selfies of icons of queer culture, such as drag performers and porn stars. He translates the digital image into a painted portrait transforming something fleeting and ephemeral into something tangible and lasting drawing new connections between viewer and sitter.