The idea of cultivating challenging concepts goes along with Ricardo Bellino's background as an individual who sees opportunity where others may not. In Brazil he partnered with John Casablancas and opened Elite Models in Sao Paulo which was successful in launching Giselle Bundchen and Adriana Lima. Years later Bellino met with Donald Trump, who told Bellino he had ONLY 3 minutes to give his pitch, which resulted in a world record for the fastest multi million dollar deal and Trump partnering with Bellino on a Brazilian real estate venture. From the experience Bellino wrote a best selling book, "You Have Three Minutes" (McGraw-Hill). While enjoying a well-deserved break at the Madison Avenue Nespresso Boutique Bar in Manhattan with his wife, Marina, he noticed the beauty and the graphic power of the shiny, colorful coffee capsules displayed on the wall. He immediately came up with a concept of transforming those capsules into pixels, and consequently into art. The idea was to use the pallet of 12 coffee blends to produce a series of portraits in honor of some of the most notorious personalities of all time. The plan was to produce 50 panels, each one measuring 6.5' x 6.5', which would require a total of 120,000 capsules! It was a huge undertaking. Bellino and Marina decided to invite their long time friend, Wellington Amaral, to join them in their venture, forming a six-hand creative/labor force. Amaral is an acclaimed film director and graphic designer from Brazil, and has been Bellino's collaborator in many other projects.Together they came up with the concept "Pixtures" and began to work in order to make things happen. The Deal Maker turned Art Maker by recycling 150.000 Nespresso coffee capsules and having his exhibition premiere being held in the historic pop culture arena of SoHo. Bellino's creative inspiration expanded to almost one hundred pop culture figures, from art, entertainment, music, sports, politics and personalities. In the SoHo temporary instalation built exclusevely to display Bellino's art exhibit comprised by 17 6.5 foot square images, including John F. Kennedy, Ghandi, Marilyn Monroe, Ray Charles, James Taylor, Valentino, Oprah and President Obama. Bellino contemplated the fast paced world of digitized images and envisioned a concept representative of functional object and celebrity defined as a reinterpretation of our cultural process. The Nespresso coffee capsules depict colors point by point -- up close it is a myriad of perfectly aligned colorful shapes, but step back and the iconic faces materialize. From simple object to techno, if the artwork is viewed through a cell phone it is no longer a micro view, but a clear image staring back at us through the phone.
