Cleber Gouvêa (Uberlândia MG 1942 - Brasília DF 2000)
Cleber Gouvêa was a painter, printmaker, sculptor and teacher. In 1954, he studied mural painting with Geraldo Queiroz and, in 1957, he met the sculptor Franz Weissmann and became acquainted with his work. The following year, he furthered his painting studies with Alberto da Veiga Guignard and studied ceramics, lithography and printmaking. He taught at the Instituto de Belas Artes de Goiânia in 1962 and, from 1979 on, at the Instituto de Artes of the Universidade Federal de Goiás.
Critiques
"(...) Cleber Gouvêa's painting does not stem merely from a sensory emotion; that is why it acts and communicates as if it were a magical work, encompassing optical and para-optical vision; it is not limited to the dimension and outline of forms and the rhythmic harmony of colors, because it extends to reminiscences and sensations, to anguish and depression, which lends physical and psychic versatility to his compositions. That is why, at present, Cleber Gouvêa is perhaps the only painter exploring a theme grounded in cosmogony, insofar as it reaches the mystery of all beings in formation, given his tendency to magnify organic forms that are transfigured in the depths of his inner universe. (...) A gestural painting, in which the sobriety of form and the reduction of color to somber scales produce dramatic effects, especially when the symbols lose their connotations with reality and are calligraphically transformed into structures endowed with a rare expressive force. Cleber Gouvêa is, therefore, the man and the artist who lives, day by day, in the alchemical conquest of form, texture and color (...)".
Hugo Auler
FIGUEIREDO, Aline. Artes Plásticas no Centro-Oeste. Aline Figueiredo. Cuiabá, UFMT, MACP, 1979. Bibliografia.
"Cleber Gouvêa has been producing a painting with an abstract result, through constant research into textures and forms. These forms, however, are not always detached from figurative representation, since they may establish various connotations. Often, for example, he starts from associations with mineral or plant forms, making close-ups of small details that recall the inner parts of stones or leaves, whose texture and coloring are carried onto the canvas. In fact, the artist states that his painting is influenced by his daily life. After a study of geology, he developed a series of paintings that could be compared to fossilized crustaceans, cut and embedded in stone. The same can be observed, more recently, in the Aladas [Winged Ones] series, in which he starts precisely from the texture, shape and color of a dragonfly's wing. These suggestions, however, are merely motivations from which the artist sets out for his painting (...). While dealing with forms, Cleber gives them a meticulous elaboration of textures (...)".
Aline Figueiredo
FIGUEIREDO, Aline. Artes Plásticas no Centro-Oeste. Aline Figueiredo. Cuiabá, UFMT, MACP, 1979. Bibliografia.
Solo Exhibitions
1961 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at IAB/MG
1962 - Goiânia GO - Solo, at Teatro Inacabado da AGT
1965 - Goiânia GO - Solo, at Galeria do Jornal O Popular
1973 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Guimar
1974 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria Oscar Seraphico
1976 - Goiânia GO - Solo, at Salão Marrom do Hotel Bandeirantes
1977 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1977 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria Oscar Seraphico
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Sala Cecília Meireles
1978 - Goiânia GO - Solo, at Casagrande Galeria de Arte
1981 - Goiânia GO - Retrospectiva Cleber Gouvêa: Pinturas de 1963 a 1981 [Cleber Gouvêa Retrospective: Paintings from 1963 to 1981], at Palácio de Cultura
1982 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1982 - São José dos Campos SP - Solo, at Galeria do Sol
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1984 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Paulo Prado
1986 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, at Galeria Cambona
1986 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Dan Galeria
1987 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Dan Galeria
1987 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Manoel Macedo Galeria de Arte
1993 - Goiânia GO - Solo, at Casa Grande Galeria de Arte
1996 - Brasília DF - Solo, at Galeria Marlene Gastal
1997 - Goiânia GO - Solo, at Fundação Jaime Câmara
Group Exhibitions
1959 - Belo Horizonte MG - 14th Municipal Fine Arts Salon - 1st prize
1959 - Belo Horizonte MG - University Salon - 2nd prize
1963 - Goiânia GO - 1st Visual Arts Salon of the Universidade Federal de Goiás - 3rd prize
1964 - Goiânia GO - 1st Goiás Artist Salon - 3rd prize
1966 - São Paulo SP - Coletiva de Artistas Goianos [Group Exhibition of Artists from Goiás], at Masp
1967 - Wyoming (United States) - Group show, at the Wyoming College of Art
1969 - Goiânia GO - 1st Visual Arts Biennial - 1st prize
1970 - New Orleans (United States) - Group show, at Galeria Salomé
1970 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Pre-Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1971 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal - Itamaraty acquisition prize
1972 - Brasília DF - Coletiva de Artistas Goianos [Group Exhibition of Artists from Goiás], at Galeria Porta do Sol
1973 - Brasília DF - 1st Global Spring Salon - foreign travel prize
1974 - Goiânia GO - Caixa Econômica National Visual Arts Salon - 1st prize
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 24th Modern Art Salon
1975 - São Paulo SP - 13th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1975 - São Paulo SP - Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1976 - São Paulo SP - National Biennial 76, at Fundação Bienal
1976 - São Paulo SP - 8th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1977 - Goiânia GO - 4th Frei Confaloni Art Salon
1977 - Goiânia GO - Coletiva de Artistas Goianos [Group Exhibition of Artists from Goiás], at Galeria Frei Confaloni
1978 - Milan (Italy) - Artists from Goiás
1978 - Paris (France) - Artists from Goiás
1978 - Rome (Italy) - Artists from Goiás
1979 - São Paulo SP - 11th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1981 - São Paulo SP - Expo Arte Goiás, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ - foreign travel prize
1983 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1983 - São Paulo SP - 14th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP - acquisition prize
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Active Brazilian Painting, at Espaço Petrobras
1987 - São Paulo SP - 18 Contemporaries, at Dan Galeria
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Craft of Art: Painting, at Sesc
1990 - Goiânia GO - 20 Anos do Museu de Arte de Goiânia [20 Years of the Museu de Arte de Goiânia], at Museu de Arte
1998 - Catalão GO - 60 Artists for the 60th Anniversary of the Newspaper O Popular, at Fórum Municipal
1998 - Goiânia GO - 60 Artists for the 60th Anniversary of the Newspaper O Popular, at Fundação Jaime Câmara
1998 - Itumbiara GO - 60 Artists for the 60th Anniversary of the Newspaper O Popular, at Casa de Cultura de Itumbiara
1998 - Rio Verde GO - 60 Artists for the 60th Anniversary of the Newspaper O Popular, at Secretaria Municipal de Ciências, Tecnologia e Cultura. Palácio da Intendência
Source: Itaú Cultural
