The 10 Best Contemporary Artists from Brazil

Born in 1964 in São Paulo where he lives and works today, Albano Afonso had his debut exhibition in 1994 at the Centro Cultural São Paulo and has since enjoyed acclaimed exhibitions across the globe including in Lisbon, Paris, Miami and Kawasaki. The artist works at the intersection of painting, photography and cinema in his exploration of the intangibility and anatomy of light. Using an array of different materials, Afonso examines the abilities and functions of light creating vivid tableaus and landscapes in which light bulbs, mirrors and constellations are predominant features. His work The Garden, I make in it the return to the infinite (2010) is a miniature scene constructed in bronze and crystal and backlit by a projector casting a haunting shadow, while in his 2002 series Self-portrait with light Afonso captures photographs his reflection with camera flash on, creating a purposefully obscuring flare of light.

Young artist Rodrigo Torres was born in 1981 and is currently based in Rio de Janeiro. Torres was educated in painting at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s School of Fine Arts before studying photography at the city’s Atelie da Imagem. Between 2006 and 2010, he worked as an assistant under fellow Brazilian artist Luiz Zerbini, whose abstract collages no doubt helped form Torres’ artistic direction. Torres is perhaps best known for his captivating, colorful and intricately crafted banknote collages sourced from around the world. Recognizing the similarities between art and money, in that their value is far greater than the medium on which they are printed, Torres takes this notion one step further, creating art from money, and thus elevating the currency’s worth.

The often vibrant, sometimes monochromatic works of Gonçalo Ivo are a meditation in geometry and the sensation of color. The artist, born in 1958 in Rio de Janeiro and the son of Brazilian poet, journalist and writer Lêdo Ivo, has been exhibited at galleries in his homeland and overseas such as the São Paulo Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art in Dallas, Texas, and now divides his time between his Paris home and Brazil. His paintings, characterized by brightly colored geometric stripes and shapes such as Fuga – Acordes da Primavera(2012) and Pano da Costa (2009), are reminiscent of patchworks and mosaics. Ivo has also created a body of ethereal watercolor paintings and contemporary sculptures that stay true to his dual passions of color and geometrical forms.