Iran do Espírito Santo (Mococa SP 1963)
Iran do Espírito Santo is a painter, sculptor, draftsman and printmaker. He graduated in visual arts from the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP) in São Paulo in 1986, where his teachers included Regina Silveira (1939) and Nelson Leirner (1932 - 2020). In that period, he met artists such as Ana Tavares, Leda Catunda (1961), Mônica Nador (1955), Caetano de Almeida and Edgar de Souza, among others. In 1987, he moved to London, where he lived for three years. In 1991, he was an artist in residence in Winnipeg, Canada, holding a solo exhibition at the Plug In Inc. Gallery. In 1993, he took part in a residency at the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, United States.
His work engages in dialogue with architecture, design and photography. Since the late 1980s, he has created installations with interventions in exhibition spaces, as in Real (1989). In 2000, the book Iran do Espírito Santo, by Felipe Chaimovich, was published by Cosac & Naify.
Critical Commentary
Since the mid-1980s, Iran do Espírito Santo's work has maintained a dialogue with architecture, design, photography and also pop art. As the critic Felipe Chaimovich notes, in the series Lonas Pintadas [Painted Canvases] he questions the relationship between the artwork and everyday space, depicting furniture in a highly stylized way, as in Sofá [Sofa] (1984), in which three-dimensionality is subtly suggested. In the series Conteúdos Úteis [Useful Contents] (1989), the artist uses the outlines of industrial packaging, easily identifiable by the viewer but markedly impersonal in their standardization.
In the installation Real (1989), set up at the Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil - IAB/SP [Institute of Architects of Brazil] in São Paulo, Iran do Espírito Santo re-creates a stone wall in Styrofoam, disguising the architectural space and making it ambiguous. In his production, he associates image and text, each radicalizing the meaning of the other, so exactly that it creates a certain strangeness and suspicion in the viewer. In the installation Amnésia [Amnesia] (1990), at the Paço das Artes in São Paulo, he reorganizes the architecture of the exhibition space, based on appearance and effect.
As the art historian Tadeu Chiarelli notes, the artist's production stands out for questioning art's relationship with its place, through interventions in architecture and the exploration of the aesthetic potential and the reverberation of meaning of these spaces.
Critiques
"(...) More economical in his language, Irã Teófilo do Espírito Santo, in both the drawings and the objects he produces, shows a marked predilection for the diluted images of advertising, displaying a great affinity with artists linked to pop art, especially Patrick Caulfield (for the treatment of images) and Lichtenstein (for the subtle irony)".
Tadeu Chiarelli
IMAGENS de segunda geração. Apresentação de Ana Mae Barbosa. Texto de Tadeu Chiarelli. São Paulo: MAC/USP, 1987.
"The installation presented in the exhibition Real at the Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil in São Paulo last year showed the artist Iran do Espírito Santo as another young artist from the city concerned with the relationship of art to its place. One of the deepest characteristics of Espírito Santo's production is his concern with institutionalized codes of representation and with the universe of appearances. At the IAB, his almost transparent intervention in the gallery space, once noticed by the visitor, reshaped the entire surroundings, enhancing the possibilities of reverberation of that place's meaning. (...) Image and text, these two instances of representing the world, are the two structural parts of Iran's works. One radicalizing the meaning of the other to the utmost, they trace a correspondence that, being so apparently exact, even tautological, arouses a certain strangeness in the public, the suspicion of facing a paradox. For Iran's words and images (almost ideograms) live on the appearance of things, not on their concreteness. In his installation Real, facing the word Real inscribed on the wall, there was the representation of a stone wall, skillfully carved in Styrofoam, covering part of the gallery's real wall so discreetly that the public hardly noticed that the stone wall was in fact the representation of a stone wall made of Styrofoam. What was real? The wall on which the word was inscribed or the representation of the stone wall on the real wall? Or both? Or neither? Or nothing? Or everything?"
Tadeu Chiarelli
ANA Maria Tavares, Artur Lescher, Iran do Espírito Santo. Texto de Tadeu Chiarelli. São Paulo: Paço das Artes, 1990. pp. [4-6]
"His work plays games with memory, but not in a narrative or verbal, comforting sense, as in the large slice of the latest generation's art, childish and dumbed-down, that deals with fairy tales, autobiographical trivialities and the like. Iran cuts these links and uses a possibility of visual knowledge, an alternative to a reason tied to the word, analyzing the memory of visual structures that repeat and spread, not linked to any particular situation or object. His working process is imbued with certain basic visual invariants, such as grids of verticals and horizontals which, found in everyday life, become abstracted toward the loss of meaning and turn into art objects. That is how No Xadrez [In the Checkerboard], the key work of the exhibition, works. The walls painted with an enlarged checkerboard pattern create a specific experience for the observer (between shelter and prison), revealing something that was contained in the very everyday contact with similar visual patterns reproduced on wool, notebook covers, folders, bedspreads and countless other things".
Carlos E. Uchôa Fagundes
FAGUNDES, Carlos E. Uchôa. Iran do Espírito Santo joga com tramas. In: Folha de S. Paulo, São Paulo, 14 mar. 1995. Ilustrada, p. 9.
Solo Exhibitions
1991 - Winnipeg (Canada) - Solo, at Plug In Inc. Gallery
1992 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Espaço Cultural Sérgio Porto
1995 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1996 - Chicago (United States) - Solo, at Randolph Street Gallery
1998 - New York (United States) - Solo, at Paul Morris Gallery
1998 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Camargo Vilaça
1998 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at CCSP
2000 - Porto (Portugal) - Solo, at Galeria André Viana
2001 - São Paulo SP - Nada mais Natural [Nothing More Natural], at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2002 - New York (United States) - Iran do Espírito Santo, Parallel Reality, at Sean Kelly Gallery
2003 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at MAP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2005 - São Paulo SP - O Retrato como Imagem do Mundo [The Portrait as an Image of the World], at MAM/SP
Group Exhibitions
1984 - São Paulo SP - Arte na Rua 2 [Art on the Street 2]
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Corte do Olhar [Cut of the Gaze], at MAM/RJ
1985 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Desenhar [To Draw], at Itaugaleria
1985 - São Paulo SP - Desenhos [Drawings], at Centro Cultural Bonfiglioli
1985 - São Paulo SP - E o Desenho? [And Drawing?], at Galeria Humberto
1985 - São Paulo SP - Gráfica Contemporânea [Contemporary Graphics], at Galeria Humberto
1986 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Bienal Latino-Americana de Artes sobre Papel [Latin American Biennial of Art on Paper]
1986 - Cali (Colombia) - 5ª Bienal Americana de Artes Gráficas [5th American Biennial of Graphic Arts], at Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia
1986 - São Paulo SP - A Nova Dimensão do Objeto [The New Dimension of the Object], at MAC/USP
1987 - São Paulo SP - Imagens de Segunda Geração [Second-Generation Images], at MAC/USP
1987 - São Paulo SP - 19ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [19th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1988 - São Paulo SP - Ação no MAM [Action at MAM], at MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo SP - MAC 25 Anos: aquisições e doações recentes [MAC 25 Years: Recent Acquisitions and Donations], at MAC/USP
1989 - São Paulo SP - Real, at IAB/SP
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Projeto Macunaíma [Macunaíma Project], at Funarte
1990 - São Paulo SP - 21º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [21st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1990 - São Paulo SP - Apropriações [Appropriations], at Paço das Artes
1991 - Piracicaba SP - Artistas Contemporâneos [Contemporary Artists], at Engenho Central
1992 - Curitiba PR - 10ª Mostra da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba/Mostra América [10th Curitiba City Printmaking Show/America Show], at Museu da Gravura
1992 - Porto Alegre RS - Câmaras [Chambers], at Solar dos Câmaras
1993 - New York (United States) - Língua Latina Est Regina, at Stux Gallery
1993 - São Paulo SP - Coletiva de Pintura [Painting Group Show], at Espaço Namour
1993 - São Paulo SP - Homem-Sanduíche [Sandwich Man], at Praça Ramos de Azevedo
1993 - São Paulo SP - Uma Outra Fotografia [Another Photography], at Espaço Useche
1994 - Albuquerque (United States) - Do Brazil, at The Albuquerque Museum
1994 - Curitiba PR - Projeto Tamarind [Tamarind Project], at Museu da Gravura
1994 - São Paulo SP - Espelhos e Sombras [Mirrors and Shadows], at MAM/SP
1994 - São Paulo SP - Outros Territórios: travessia pela sexualidade [Other Territories: Crossing through Sexuality], at Paço das Artes
1995 - Chicago (United States) - Fagosites, at Gallery 400
1995 - Curitiba PR - 11ª Mostra da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba [11th Curitiba City Printmaking Show]
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Espelhos e Sombras [Mirrors and Shadows], at CCBB
1995 - São Paulo SP - Anos 80: o palco da diversidade [The 1980s: The Stage of Diversity], at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1995 - São Paulo SP - Corte do Olhar [Cut of the Gaze], at MAM/SP
1995 - Uberlândia MG - Arte na Cidade [Art in the City], at Universidade Federal de Uberlândia
1996 - São Paulo SP - Arte Brasileira Contemporânea: doações recentes [Contemporary Brazilian Art: Recent Donations], at MAM/SP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Beige, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1996 - São Paulo SP - Pequenas Mãos [Small Hands], at Centro Cultural Alumni
1997 - San Diego (United States) - In Site 97, at Installation Gallery
1997 - Tijuana (Mexico) - In Site 97, at Installation Gallery
1997 - San Francisco (United States) - Present Tense: nine artists in the nineties, at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
1997 - São Paulo SP - 25º Panorama de Arte Brasileira [25th Panorama of Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1997 - São Paulo SP - Ao Cubo [Cubed], at Paço das Artes
1997 - São Paulo SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Brasília DF - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Campinas SP - A Gravura como Escultura [Printmaking as Sculpture], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Campinas SP - Medidas de Si [Measures of Oneself], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Greensboro (United States) - Art on Paper, at Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
1998 - Niterói RJ - 25º Panorama de Arte Brasileira [25th Panorama of Brazilian Art], at MAC/Niterói
1998 - Penápolis SP - A Gravura como Escultura [Printmaking as Sculpture], at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Penápolis SP - Tridimensionalidade na Arte Brasileira do Século XX [Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art], at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Recife PE - 25º Panorama de Arte Brasileira [25th Panorama of Brazilian Art], at Mamam
1998 - Ribeirão Preto SP - As Dimensões da Arte Contemporânea [The Dimensions of Contemporary Art], at Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto Pedro Manuel-Gismondi
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte Brasileira no Acervo do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo: doações recentes 1996-1998 [Brazilian Art in the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo: Recent Donations 1996-1998], at CCBB
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Horizonte Reflexivo [Reflective Horizon], at Centro Cultural Light
1998 - Salvador BA - 25º Panorama de Arte Brasileira [25th Panorama of Brazilian Art], at MAM/BA
1998 - São Paulo SP - A Gravura como Escultura [Printmaking as Sculpture], at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Camargo Vilaça BIS, at Galeria Camargo Vilaça
1998 - São Paulo SP - City Canibal, at Paço das Artes
1998 - São Paulo SP - Medidas de Si [Measures of Oneself], at MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Programa Anual de Exposições de Artes Plásticas [Annual Visual Arts Exhibition Program], at CCSP
1999 - Istambul (Turkey) - 6ª Bienal de Istambul [6th Istanbul Biennial]
1999 - Madrid (Spain) - Arco 99
1999 - São Paulo SP - Contaminação [Contamination], at MIS/SP
1999 - São Paulo SP - Espaço Aberto [Open Space], at Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade
1999 - Venice (Italy) - 48ª Bienal de Veneza [48th Venice Biennale]
2000 - Belo Horizonte MG - Investigações. São ou Não São Gravuras? [Investigations. Are They or Aren't They Prints?], at Itaú Cultural
2000 - Brasília DF - Investigações. São ou Não São Gravuras? [Investigations. Are They or Aren't They Prints?], at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2000 - Curitiba PR - 12ª Mostra da Gravura de Curitiba. Marcas do Corpo, Dobras da Alma [12th Curitiba Printmaking Show. Marks of the Body, Folds of the Soul]
2000 - Madrid (Spain) - Visiones de Latinoamérica, at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
2000 - São Paulo SP - Entre a Arte e o Design: acervo do MAM [Between Art and Design: MAM Collection], at MAM/SP
2000 - São Paulo SP - Fim de Milênio: os anos 90 no MAM [End of the Millennium: The 1990s at the MAM], at MAM/SP
2000 - São Paulo SP - Obra Nova [New Work], at MAC/USP
2000 - São Paulo SP - Universo Desenho [Drawing Universe], at Galeria Camargo Vilaça
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Espelho Cego: seleções de uma coleção contemporânea [Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection], at Paço Imperial
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Espírito de Nossa Época [The Spirit of Our Time], at MAM/RJ
2001 - São Paulo SP - 27º Panorama de Arte Brasileira [27th Panorama of Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Espelho Cego: seleções de uma coleção contemporânea [Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection], at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Fotografia/Não Fotografia [Photography/Non-Photography], at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Idéia Coletiva [Collective Idea], at Galeria Camargo Vilaça
2001 - São Paulo SP - O Espírito de Nossa Época [The Spirit of Our Time], at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Rotativa Fase 1 [Rotary Phase 1], at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajetória da Luz na Arte Brasileira [Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art], at Itaú Cultural
2002 - Liverpool (England) - Pot
2002 - Londrina PR - São ou Não São Gravuras? [Are They or Aren't They Prints?], at Museu de Arte de Londrina
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 27º Panorama de Arte Brasileira [27th Panorama of Brazilian Art], at MAM/RJ
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Imagem do Som do Rock Pop Brasil [The Image of the Sound of Brazilian Pop Rock], at Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caminhos do Contemporâneo 1952-2002 [Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002], at Paço Imperial
2002 - Salvador BA - 27º Panorama de Arte Brasileira [27th Panorama of Brazilian Art], at MAM/BA
2002 - São Paulo SP - 20 Artistas/20 Anos [20 Artists/20 Years], at CCSP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Fotografias no Acervo do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo [Photographs in the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo], at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Nefelibatas [Daydreamers], at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Paralela, at the warehouse at Avenida Matarazzo, 530
2002 - São Paulo SP - Pot, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2003 - São Paulo SP - 2080, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - A Nova Geometria [The New Geometry], at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2003 - São Paulo SP - Compressores e Condensadores [Compressors and Condensers], at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAC USP 40 Anos: interfaces contemporâneas [MAC USP 40 Years: Contemporary Interfaces], at MAC/USP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Meus Amigos [My Friends], at MAM/SP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Bazar de Verão [Summer Bazaar], at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2004 - São Paulo SP - Still Life/Natureza Morta, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2004 - São Paulo SP - Fragmentos e Souvenirs Paulistanos - Vol. I [São Paulo Fragments and Souvenirs - Vol. I], at Galeria Luisa Strina
2004 - Porto Alegre RS - Olho Vivo: a arte da fotografia [Olho Vivo: a Arte da Fotografia [Sharp Eye: The Art of Photography]], at Santander Cultural
2005 - São Paulo SP - O Retrato como Imagem do Mundo [The Portrait as an Image of the World], at Museu de Arte Moderna
2005 - Porto Alegre RS - 5ª Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul [5th Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial]
2006 - São Paulo SP - MAM na Oca [MAM at Oca]
2006 - São Paulo SP - Padrões e Padronagens [Patterns and Patterning], at Galeria de Arte Marília Razuk
2006 - São Paulo SP - Paralela 2006, at Pavilhão dos Estados
2006 - São Paulo SP - Volpi e as Heranças Contemporâneas [Volpi and the Contemporary Legacies], at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo
2006 - Fortaleza CE - Designu Desdobramentos [Designu Unfoldings], at Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura
2007 - São Paulo SP - 80/90: modernos, pós-modernos, etc [80/90: Moderns, Postmoderns, etc.], at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2007 - Brasília DF - Jardim do Poder [Garden of Power], at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
2007 - New York (United States) - Pure. A Group Show, at Sean Kelly Gallery
2008 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [São Paulo International Biennial], at Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo Sobrinho
2008 - São Paulo SP - Bordando Arte [Embroidering Art], at Pinacoteca do Estado
2008 - São Paulo SP - MAM 60, at Oca
2008 - São Paulo SP - Panorama dos Panoramas [Panorama of Panoramas], at Museu de Arte Moderna
2008 - New York (United States) - A Year In Drawing, at Galerie Lelong
2009 - São Paulo SP - Atenção: estratégias para perceber a arte [Attention: Strategies for Perceiving Art], at Museu de Arte Moderna
2009 - São Paulo SP - 40º Chapel Art Show, at Escola Maria Imaculada - Chapel School
2010 - São Paulo SP - Das Coisas em Geral [Of Things in General], at Espaço Coleção Particular
2010 - São Paulo SP - Paralela, at Liceu de Artes e Ofícios
2010 - São Paulo SP - Ponto de Equilíbrio [Balance Point], at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2010 - São Paulo SP - 6ª sp-arte, at Fundação Bienal
2011 - São Paulo SP - Beuys e Bem Além: Ensinar como Arte [Beuys and Well Beyond: Teaching as Art], at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2011 - São Paulo SP - Ordem e Progresso: vontade construtiva na arte brasileira [Order and Progress: Constructive Will in Brazilian Art], at Museu de Arte Moderna
2011 - São Paulo SP - Recortes de uma coleção [Excerpts from a Collection], at Galeria Ricardo Camargo
2011 - São Paulo SP - 7ª SP-Arte, at Pavilhão da Bienal
Source: Itaú Cultural
