10 Contemporary Brazilian

Artists You Should Know

By Artsy Editors
Aug 31, 2013 12:05 pm

Although Brazil has more than its fair share of talented painters
and influential photographers, a dominant trend in the nation’s
booming contemporary art scene is the notion of site-specificity.
Indeed, Brazil is a very particular place, ripe with material and
inspiration for artistic experimentation—and Muniz and these
nine compatriots are the proof.

Carlito Carvalhosa

Carlito CarvalhosaPrecaução de contato2014Galeria Nara Roesler

Carlito CarvalhosaJá estava assim quando eu cheguei (pão de açúcar)2006Galeria Nara Roesler

A celebrated Brazilian conceptual artist, Carvalhosa uses

diverse mediums and found objects to transform architectural
space. His best-known piece is probably Sum of Days (2011), a
monumental site-specific installation of white translucent
material and recorded ambient noise he installed in MoMA’s
atrium.

Saint Clair Cemin

Saint Clair CeminStar2011Bolsa de Arte de Porto Alegre
Saint Clair CeminGreece2012Paul Kasmin Gallery

Ranging from figurative to abstract, Corten steel to rugged

marble, Cemin’s sculptures reference a wide range of artists and
cultures; indeed, though Brazilian-born, the sculptor now lives
and works in Brooklyn and Beijing.

Sandra Cinto

Sandra CintoSem Título2009Studio Nóbrega

Sandra CintoCavalo branco1998Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM)

In her intricately detailed drawings, paintings, and installations,

Cinto presents mesmerizing, engulfing images of the sea, sky,
and natural elements as visual metaphors for the Odyssey of life.
(Take a look at her transformation of the Seattle Art
Museum here.)

Cildo Meireles
Cildo MeirelesMissão/Missões [Mission/Missions] (How to Build Cathedrals)1987Blanton Museum of Art

Meireles creates massive, immersive installations that encourage

interaction and reflect political concerns. His sprawling works
incorporate found objects, like the bones, coins, and communion
wafers seen here, or the bottles of his infamous Coca Cola
Project in the Tate collection.
Iran do Espírito Santo

Iran do Espírito SantoDropping Bottles - Sequence2014Ingleby Gallery

Iran do Espírito SantoCan G2008Sean Kelly Gallery

Santo is known for sculptures in which everyday objects—such

as dice, light bulbs, tin cans, and mirrors—are abstracted into
simplified, minimalist geometric forms. Many of his works are
included in MoMA’s permanent collection.

Cao Guimarães
Cao GuimarãesGambiarra # 109 2012Galeria Nara Roesler

Cao Guimarãesuntitled from the series Úmido (Moist)2013Galeria Nara Roesler

Working across mediums, Guimarães evocatively captures

everyday events and quiet actions in urban and rural settings
throughout Brazil. He is well known for his gambiarras (loosely
translating as “improvisations”)—subtle interventions he enacts
on found objects and then documents in poetic, disquieting
photographs.

Lucia Koch
Lucia KochDupla {CZ1405 + AB1107}2014Galeria Nara Roesler

Whether adding light filters and translucent materials, altering

skylights and facades, or pasting images of three-dimensional
spaces to walls, Koch centers her practice on transforming
architectural spaces. Her acts are meant to create tension
between interior and exterior, ultimately challenging the limits
of particular spaces.

Ernesto Neto
Ernesto NetoVariation on Color Seed Space Time Love2009Galerie Bob van Orsouw

Ernesto NetoGeometria espiralada da flor e seu cipó2014Galería Elba Benítez

One of Brazil’s most influential installation artists, Neto creates

large-scale, sensuous environments that evoke bodily
experience, often working with a stretchy, stocking-like fabric
in vibrant colors, which he fills with aromatic, organic, or tactile
materials. “Sex is like a snake; it slithers through everything,”
he says of his work.

Tunga

TungaUntitled 2014Galleria Franco Noero

TungaSem título2010Studio Nóbrega
TungaUntitled, from the series Cooking ...

José de Barros Carvalho e Mello, a.k.a. Tunga, makes site-

specific installations that transform galleries into dreamlike
environments using an array of materials, including plastic,
thread, and repurposed objects. His extensive influence can be
seen reverberating throughout Brazilian contemporary art.

Vik Muniz
Vik MunizThe Stone Breakers, after Gustave Courbet (Pictures of Magazines 2)2013Sikkema Jenkins &
Co.

Born into poverty in São Paulo and rising to be Brazil’s most

famous artist internationally, Muniz repurposes everyday
materials for intricate and heavily layered appropriations of
canonical artworks. Among his many works, Muniz has re-
created Warhol in diamonds, da Vinci in peanut butter and jelly,
and large-scale Neoclassical masterpieces from trash in Brazil’s
largest landfill.