Born in Brazil, Joao Brandao graduated from EMBAP in Curitiba in 2007. He was subsequently awarded a residency program in the USA at the Josef Albers Foundation in New Haven, Connecticut, where he developed in depth studies of Albers’ color theory literature. In 2009, Joao began studying with renowned portrait painter Joseph Peller at the Art Students League of New York. At the League he won Best of Show three times, two Merit Scholarship Grants and the Permanent Collection Purchase Prize. He earned his MFA degree from the New York Academy of Art in 2013. Joao has been teaching the NYAA/CE Master Copying Program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2014, in addition to workshops and classes held at the Institute of Classical Architecture, the Art Students League of New York and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. His paintings and drawings hang in both public and private collections on both sides of the Atlantic. He is represented by Anders Wahlstedt Gallery in New York where he lives and works.