IVANILDE BRUNOW was born in Itaguacu, Brazil, and studyied art at the Federal University of Espirito Santo. Her work ranges from her use of oil paints to the creation of formulas for paints using pigments, resins, and other materials, enabling her to invent techniques and develop a distinct style, giving a more immediate relationship with her work.

"My large abstract works are a pure stream of consciousness," she writes. Nowhere in her work will the viewer find an image that is safely recognizable. "The viewer must allow themselves to be carried into a place of emotion and dreams. The brave viewer taking this journey will be rewarded with fantastic colors, surprising edges, and at times jarring changes of direction and rhythm."

Her work is composed with a sure understanding of the rules, and a confident and unflinching knowledge of how and when to break them. Her artworks are in many private and corporate collections, and the Brazilian Art Museum of Sao Paulo, and the Art Museums of Brasilia, Santa Catarina, and Kobe, Japan.

GLORIA DA SILVA, a painter, poet, and musician, and helped to organized this exhibition. She was born in Rio de Janeiro and moved to Manhattan in the 1960's where the renowned Surrealist Salvador Dali befriended her. This friendship took her to spend many years in Cadaques, Spain, where the famous painter was her mentor. She traveled all over Europe, visiting as many museums as possible.

"I paint because it feels like I am creating my own environment, built in a closer relationship between my emotions, my life, my memories, and me. Painting takes me on a journey in the country, back to Brazil, brings me back to my childhood, traveling throughout space and time. It guides me to where my heart is, and helps me reach out to my dreams; it brings about occasions, change, and continuation. It grasps life most intimately, and can reflect movement."

Studying art and Early Childhood Education at Housatonic College, she has consistently won awards in exhibits at the Bert Chernow Museum. Da Silva was one of the main organizers of the First Brazilian Art Exhibition in Bridgeport, and the First International Art Exhibition in the Trumbull Town Hall.

ANDRESSA CURWIN originally from Curitiba Pr Brazil, came to the U.S. in 1994 to study at Central High School in Bridgeport. This was where she discovered her talent for art. In her junior year, she received a scholarship to attend Wesleyan University and to be part of the "Center for Creative Youth Visual art". Andressa helped organize First Brazilian Art Exhibition, in 2003, at Augustine Art and Antiques in Stratford, CT, and later at the Catholic Center in Bridgeport, and the International Exhibition at the Trumbull Town Hall. She was invited to exhibit at the Bridgeport Innovation Center. Andressa is a student of Fine Art and Computer Graphics Design at Housatonic Community College.