J. Leal - Studio Caricature Artist

Jerihely Leal, better known as J. Leal (Jota Leal) was born in Venezuela in 1976 and was born with a paint brush in hand. He always dreamed he would be working in the Arts, but between dreams and realities, he was practically forced to get a degree in Electronics Engineering. And though he graduated with honors in 98, the paintbrush proved to be stronger than the electronic circuits. A little over a month later he started working as an illustrator for a national sport magazine. From that moment his reputation took off, which helped him to get a job in a political magazine, where his worked dressed up a number of covers.

In 2001 J. Leal moved to Spain in order to cultivate himself in the genesis of Art. He participated in several plastic arts workshops in the A’TELLIER Academy, in order to polish his empiric knowledge about the technique.

He returned to his hometown in Venezuela, where he has given total freedom to his creativeness. This autonomy has allowed him to develop his finest and most original works and the public eye has noticed it, awarding him with the “ 2003 Pedro Leon Zapata Award”, the biggest prize for caricaturists in Venezuela. These days J. Leal works regularly for a national newspaper, also for an important up coming sport magazine in Spain and collaborates as an illustrator and creative consultant for major publicity agencies.

J. Leal styles is the result of the mixture of his remarkable painting skills with his stylish and bitter sense of humor which brings out a unique point of view of the personalities and circumstances portrayed in his works. The outcome is so complex and yet so simple at the same time, smart without being snobby, and accessible without being ordinary. If one word could describe J. Leal it would be “original”, expressed better yet in two words, “original” and “enjoyable”.