Painter. Figurative Artist.

Lifelong New Mexico resident and enthusiast for punctuality, Adam Bustamante paints strange portraits. Following a decently decorated high school wrestling career and at the tail end of pursuing a degree in history/philosophy from the University of New Mexico, Adam turned to art as an escape from the soul-crushing minutia of normal life. 

A background in graffiti informed aspects of his artistic development, but a peculiar passion for classical realism soon became his primary focus. While the quest for excellence in this direction was invigorating, devoting oneself to a practice that lost its relevance centuries prior takes a toll. Even though Adam’s career in classic portraiture was thriving like a tulip in December, he felt it was time for a change. 

Adam’s current work maintains many traditions from his time as a realist painter; the awareness of effective texture and opacity as well as subtle shifts in temperature and distinctive layering to convey the turning of form and transformation of plains and surfaces. However, these considerations are now juxtaposed with explosions of fluorescent color, unorthodox paint application, foreign items wedged into the paint, as well as fragmentation and disintegration of his subjects. Moments of realism, impressionism, surrealism, modernism, and even a little vandalism are often interlaced in a single portrait.