Painting the Rich and Famous

Portrait artist, Juan Bastos, takes us on a tour of 21st century portrait painting with stories from his 40-year career of immortalizing fascinating personalities from four continents.

Over the four past decades, Los Angeles-based portrait artist, Juan Bastos, has executed several hundred portrait commissions in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. These oil paintings and pastel drawings hang in private homes, corporate offices, government buildings, embassies, libraries, churches, and universities.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1958, Bastos and his family returned to Bolivia, their homeland, eleven years later. Surrounded by relatives who were painters, Bastos grew up in an artistic environment. After studying fine arts and architecture at the University of San Andres in La Paz, he came to the United States where he enrolled at Georgetown University in 1979. He later obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Cum Laude, and a Master of Fine Arts from Towson University.

Bastos has had one-man shows in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Lima, La Paz, and a Los Angeles retrospective of his California portraits. In addition, he has been included in group shows in New York, Paris, Madrid, Los Angeles, Essex, England, and a biennial in Cairo, Egypt. His works have been widely reviewed by the press. Bastos is often invited to give lectures and demonstrations at universities, colleges, and art institutions. Bastos has lived in Los Angeles since 1996.