Arts byTADEO

Paintings by TADEO

Art that reminds youWho you belong to.

Most people are carrying something nobody else can see. Tadeo carried it too. He went to prison, built an empire and lost all of it, and was stripped down to the bare bone. He paints that, and he makes every piece as medicine for whoever is enduring something now.

Tadeo seated in his gallery, surrounded by his canvases, brushes and paint on the table beside him.
Tadeo in his gallery(an illustration from his book, Painted in His Image)

What the work is for

His work is made to illuminate God and to hand you back your own face. He says he wants it to awaken people to who they are. If you have forgotten, a piece of his on your wall is there every morning to remind you.

Where to start

  1. OneLook at the work.
  2. TwoHear the story it came out of.
  3. ThreeAsk about a piece, or ask him to paint one for you.
Ask about a piece→
“I know without a shadow of doubt that the world is nothing but art.”

Javier Tadeo Contreras

Art finds you. You don’t find it.

What it looks like

The gallery →
The gallery as a place people come to make things together (an illustration from his book, Painted in His Image)
The gallery as a place people come to make things together (an illustration from his book, Painted in His Image)
“Slowly, I realized I wasn’t being punished—I was being prepared. What felt like destruction was actually rebirth.”