"Kung Fu Fire Fighter" (2024), marker and acrylic on wood by Paul Fortunato / Courtesy of Paul Fortunato

Paul Fortunato, a Daejeon-based artist whose surname means "lucky" in Italian, survived a horrific episode of internal bleeding that could have ended his life. During his illness and long recovery, he had to take what he describes as a "mandatory vacation." Forced into stillness, he contemplated his life, mortality and place within the world as a vulnerable living being. Reflecting upon his past as well as his future, he responds with humor and pathos in his solo art exhibition, Circular Time, opening May 8 at the Daejeon Gallery.

In an interview with The Korea Times, he described himself as being "born with a crayon in my hand."

"Lightning Strike" (2024), acrylic on panel with bricks and a pillow by Paul Fortunato / Courtesy of Paul Fortunato

As a child, he had considered becoming a veterinarian because of his love of animals. Instead, he decided to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York, graduating in 1984. His work has appeared in group exhibitions around the world, including the U.S., France, Spain, China and Korea. He has won accolades from the Elizabeth Foundation, the National Academy of Design, the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation and the Hillwood Art Museum. He taught at the School of Visual Arts before becoming a professor of painting and drawing at Hanbat National University in Daejeon.

Fortunato, now 62, creates large magical realist paintings, drawings and assemblages. His love of traditional master artists, such as Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Dürer, can be seen through the physicality presented in his large paintings as well as in the warring fantasy worlds and epic narratives he creates. He also adds a level of abstraction and color saturation to his work in the style of modern artists he admires, including Philip Guston, Pablo Picasso and Thomas Hart Benton. Finally, he also adds the irreverent satire of Jack Davis and Mort Drucker, illustrators at Mad Magazine. His paintings are often corporeal with humorously ugly figures and vivid in technicolor violence.

"Trophy" (2021), acrylic on canvas by Paul Fortunato / Courtesy of Paul Fortunato

However, the violence and grotesqueness are far from gratuitous, as Fortunato also brings his empathy and understanding of animals into the work. He described how watching a video of a zookeeper nurturing a gorilla orphaned by poaching brought him to tears. "There's a subtle understanding in the video that animals are very smart," he said. The figures in his paintings are often animalistic, yet seem to have a human intelligence and awareness of the world.

"The School of Athens (2020), acrylic on canvas by Paul Fortunato / Courtesy of Paul Fortunato

He brings his worldview into his art as well as his classroom. "I ask my students, ‘When you look in the mirror, what animal do you see? Because everyone is an animal.' They draw and paint themselves as that animal by looking at a photo of the animal that they think they are plus themselves in the mirror so that there's a synthesis between the animal and the person," he said. "And that's what I do a lot in my own work. I am the animal in a lot of the animal pictures."

With a self-effacing grin, he added, "And if you were to ask me what animal I am, it's probably some kind of rodent. There's a picture in the show of me as a big rat."

"Pauliemon" (2022), acrylic on canvas by Paul Fortunato / Courtesy of Paul Fortunato

Fortunato has tailored his home, nestled on the outskirts of Daejeon, for his art and his feline companions. "I have an intimate family relationship with eight cats plus a ninth outsider cat. You get to know them, and they almost become like people because you have an intimate understanding about each of their personalities," he said.

Attached to the ceiling are boards as walkways for his cats, literal catwalks that he has created. "There's a lot of work now that is passively produced with the help of the cats," he said, mentioning the shedded fur they generate and their destructive capabilities, which he plans to incorporate into the exhibition.

He has also designed and built an outdoor artist studio, largely using found materials. His studio spaces, akin to living entities, undergo a perpetual evolution, mirroring the fluidity of his creative journey. He often works across multiple canvases simultaneously in addition to creating sculptural works he has assembled with found materials, much of which he has collected from his university campus.

However, he has had his share of setbacks.

In 2023, he lost consciousness on a sidewalk outside a hospital as he was seeking care for severe colorectal bleeding. A kind stranger helped him, and had he been a little late in getting medical attention, he might not have survived. He has been in and out of the hospital several other times, including for knee surgery and another near-death emergency.

"I went through a period post-op where I basically dropped off the face of the earth," he said. "I wanted to just be with whatever I was thinking and feeling and seeing in my mind." During this time, he receded from social media and public life, including exhibitions of his work.

The name of the exhibition, Circular Time, contrasts with more linear conceptions of time. For this exhibition, he returned to the artistic instincts he had as a child and shifted away from painting and toward drawing, his first love. He says the work is less topical and stylized and more from his direct observations of his own experiences.

"The stuff has darkness…I've had a lot of time to reflect," he said.

"Woman" (2024), acrylic on hemp mat by Paul Fortunato / Courtesy of Paul Fortunato

Despite the dark turn of events in his life — or perhaps because of them — he also rekindled a sense of humor. "I looked in the mirror, and I said, ‘Paul, you're a funny guy. You should take that serious, you know?'"

The death of two of his friends has also given him pause. The exhibition is the first he has done in four years, and he has a lot to say.

He said of the show, "It's about me feeling vulnerable. There's a lot of themes running through the work about death and my own physical decline…But with a humorous slant. It's not maudlin. To steal a line from the movie 'Network,' I'm closer to the end than to the beginning."

Then, he added, "Death has a recognizable face, you know?"

"Madonna" (2024), PC mounted on canvas stretcher with canvas remnants still attached, by Paul Fortunato / Courtesy of Paul Fortunato

Circular Time will be presented at the Daejeon Gallery, about a 10-minute walk from Daejeon Station, from May 8 to 13. The gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. An opening reception will be held this Saturday from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. Follow @fortunatopaul31 on Instagram.

Monica Nickolai is a writer and artist. Her text-based artwork has appeared at exhibitions in the U.S., Europe and Korea. She currently lives in Daejeon and teaches at Hongik University's Sejong Campus. Visit monicanickolai.com for more information.