Caio Fonseca  (American, 1959) 

Caio Fonseca (American, b.1959) is a respected painter best known for creating paintings, etches, and prints on canvas and paper. Fonseca was born in New York, NY, into an artistic family and grew up in the West Village. His father was the renowned sculptor Gonzalez Fonseca (Uruguayan, 1922–1977), who was known for his architectural stone sculptures. His brother Bruno Fonseca (American, 1958–1994) was also a well-known artist whose styles shifted between Abstract and Figurative. Fonseca decided to forgo a formal education in favor of studying under Augusto Torres (Uruguayan, 1913–1992).

Fonseca moved with his brother to Barcelona, Spain, at the age of 19 to study with Torres until 1983. He then worked and studied Abstract Art in Pietrasanta, Italy, until 1989, before spending two years in Paris, France. Fonseca returned to the United States in 1993, and he currently divides his time between his studios in New York and Pietrasanta, Italy. Some of Fonseca's earliest works include still-life paintings, self-portraits, and models he created as a young student. His artwork has more recently evolved to become a combination of Modernist and Contemporary ideas. One of his best-known works is 5th Street #9 C00.9, which was given to the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York, by the Paul Kasmin Gallery. Pietrasanta Painting is a work he created in gouache and ink on paper, and it is on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Fonseca’s artwork is seldom listed for auction because collectors are reluctant to part with their pieces, but his work has recently been exhibited in the United States at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York. His work has also been shown internationally in Hong Kong and London, UK, by Ben Brown Fine Arts. Rather than naming specific artists as his inspirations, Fonseca credits seclusion and isolation as his muses, claiming that they allow him to be open to the discoveries within himself that become the images in his paintings. Fonseca has no specific plans for his future works of art, but rather "paint[s] to find out what's next."