Born in Lisbon, he developed his artistic skills over the last few years until he reached the international success through his work.
Probably just like the majority of the artists, Andrè started drawing when he was very young, but his turning point was at about 11 years old. That’s when he found out that he was really good at copying some things and he could also do some caricatures that other people could immediately recognize. And yet, according to some people, drawing is not considered a real job on its own. For this reason, Andrè decided to study graphic design at University.
“I like to know about all the printing processes, about typesetting, and all that stuff. So when I do an illustration I tend to think how it will look on a printed page, and I think that’s how it should be.”
He’s inspired by Jimi Handrix music, influenced by movies and fascinated with Disney cartoons.
“Someone said that one should be influenced by all the artistic disciplines except your own. I agree.”
André Carrilho is fully involved in the art world: he is a professional designer, illustrator, cartoonist, animator, caricature artist and VJ.
What sort of themes does he mostly deal with? Make yourself comfortable, because the list is very long! Andrè is for sure a contemporary and present-day artist. He deals with hot topics for modern society, such as women’s rights, racism, terrorism, Covid-19 and the pandemic situation.
In his works he talks about politics as well, like the Brexit, Brazil’s 2018 Presidential Elections, the American President Trump, the spread. Then he’s also interested in the environmental situation, like “the Greta phenomenon” and climate strikes that she organized , the importance to save the planet, animal’s rights. He is also interested in lighter topics such as important events in the world of entertainment, like the Oscar party mural and others works for many magazines like Vanity Fair, Los Angeles M., Harper’s M. and The New Yorker M.
“I tend to focus more on having a strong idea behind a drawing, instead of just trying to do a beautiful picture”.
Andrè won over 30 national and international prizes for illustration, editorial cartoon, animation and caricature, and showed his work in various exhibitions all over the world, which also appeared on The New York Times, Harper’s, The Independent on Sunday and Vanity Fair.
To discover more about the future projects and collaborations of Andrè Carrilho, stay tuned on his Instagram profile.
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