Artists

João Parrinha

Artist, musician and sculptor-designer João Parrinha was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1961. From early on, João experimented with drums, accompanying his father, a jazz musician, on the armrests of the family sofa and progressing to Brazilian percussion, until finally having his own drum made for him. Later he performed in several bands, recorded and gave concernts as jazz drummer.
João got into surfing in 1977. His first board was second-hand, shared with his brother; both wearing woolly jumpers instead of wetsuits. Later, in the 1980s, they joined Nick Uricchio and Pereira Caldas, the country’s first maker of surfboards (‘Lipsticks’) and competed in international championships. Making his own boards for ten years, João started decorating those, as well as the Lipsticks boards, with his own artwork. In the same period, he started to exhibit his paintings in various Lisbon spaces, such as the Almada Negreiros Culture Ministry (‘Jovens Pintores’) and the prestigious Gulbenkian Foundation. In 1990, João held his first solo exhibition in the coastal town of Ericeira, where he was living and painting boards for the foremost Portuguese maker of surfboards, Semente.

Then, João moved into sculpture, exhibiting in galleries such as Século, Lisbon In 1994 and 1995, he exhibited his work in Munich, Germany, together with Xandi Kreuzeder. Also in the 1990s João started working as an art director for the cinema (Alta Fidelidade) and television (the Doce Fugitiva soap opera), making TV spots (vodafone, TMN, Optimus mobile phone companies, Millennium BCP bank) and music videos e.g. (for the Oasis World Tour 2000).

Luis de Dios

Luis de Dios Mellada produces a work where creation is the juxtaposition of materials, shapes and colors in a constant changing process. With a progressive vision open to any technique and searching inside of an informal tendency Luis makes a changing process to reach a defined goal with the intention of making a recognizable work of art through his particular way of communication. He is always in company of a strong desire of experimentation and motivation of provoking a visual pleasure on the audience.
“Searching without rest, experimenting without repetition. The result is a catalyst for a new reaction of my artistic ingredients”.

Xandi Kreuzeder

Xandi Kreuzeder is a free-lancing photographer working in the fields of extreme sports, sports fashion and outdoor. He was born in 1962 in Munich, Germany.
Early already, Xandi developed a strong urge for top-class athletic performances. Five years old, he won the South German City Championship in skiing.
Later at Lake Garda, Xandi learnt windsurfing and shaping boards. From here, he got into the professional windsurfing business. Sponsored by BIC, he sailed among the top 20 windsurfers in the world.
His ten years as a windsurfing professional lead Xandi around the globe and linked him to many friends and industry contacts all over the world. Working in a small workshop at Lake Garda, he used his craftsmanship to develop the newest board designs for several windsurf companies.
Today, Xandi is a successful photographer with an open eye for the beautiful as well as the abstract things of nature and who is able to communicate the attitude of freedom.
On his ongoing quest for the new, he discovered his passion for bizarre kinds of art and started to build sculptures of recycled materials himself.
Not accepting any limits to his creativity, ten years ago the idea occured to realize creative projects together with his artist-friends. With Portuguese artist Joao Parrinha, the first exhibition took place in Munich in 1995. Since then, further exhibition projects followed continuously.
Never neglecting photography, Xandi’s aim is to unite sports, aesthetics and art.