José Rufino (João Pessoa PB 1965)
Visual artist and university professor.
In the late 1970s, José Augusto Costa de Almeida Rufino attended extension courses at the Federal University from Paraíba (UFPB). He began his artistic production in the 1980s. He moved, in 1983, to Recife, where he has contact with artists and poets linked to postal art and visual poetry, including Paulo Bruscky (1949). Graduate in Geology at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). In his works, he uses materials related to his family's history, such as documents, letters, desks and chairs, which appear in his facilities, objects and drawings. He receives the first prize in the competition of the Library Week poster, held in Recife, in 1988. Conquest Honorable Mention of the Nascente Project, from the University of São Paulo (USP), in 1991, and, the following year, he received first prize in the second edition of this project.
Criticism
"The titles of the installations [respiratio, vociferatio, lacrimatio, sudoratio], referring to the verbs to breathe, shout, tear and sweat, respectively, are part of what the artist calls "Accerve of sensations" found in childhood memories and diving in family history. Not for nothing are all sensations of purge, which come out of a core, lead to and take shape in artistic works such as explosive, fulfilled secrets and locked up for generations. This is a courageous purification process.
The artistic career of Paraíba José Rufino has as an anchor a concern for personal and family history. Rufino works with his emotional baggage with an aesthetic care of Subtle and sophisticated effects, which lead him to travel through fields of unusual meanings. The artist reveals himself to be an excellent symbol manipulator."
Kátia Canton
Canton, Kátia. [José Rufino]. In: Antarctica Artes com a Folha (1996 : São Paulo); Prata, Isabella (org.); AYDAR, Bia (org.). Antarctica Artes com o Folha. São Paulo: Cosac & Naify, 1998.
Testimonies
"My work is confused with the process of life. There is no defined limit between creation and non-creation. Where does the work end and the artist begins? I prefer to talk about the elaboration process, which is a process of accumulation of learning and forgetting, impregnated with interference from the history of art itself. The works may not be created, but collected with a kind of sieve in a large and cloudy deposit of aesthetic and conceptual possibilities.(...) The paths to follow sometimes seem clear and sometimes completely cloudy, and it is exactly this ambiguity that distances me from a Mannerist use of elements".
José Rufino
RUFINO, José. [José Rufino]. In: RODRIGUES, Elinaldo. The art and artists of Paraíba: journalistic profiles. João Pessoa: UFPB, 2001.
Individual exhibitions
1992 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition Program of the Centro Cultural São Paulo, at the Bienal Pavilion
1995 - João Pessoa PB - Respiratio, at the Gallery ARCHYDY PICADO
1995 - Olinda PE - Respiratio, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Pernambuco
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Lacrymatio, at the Sérgio Porto Cultural Space
1997 - João Pessoa PB - Memoria Deporene, at the Contemporary Art Center
1997 - Recife PR - Individual, at Galeria Vicente do Rego Monteiro
1998 - Brasília DF - Individual, at the Ruben Valentim Gallery
1998 - São Paulo SP - Letters of Sand, at Adriana Penteado Contemporâneo
2001 - Natal RN - Individual, at Casa da Ribeira. Sala Petrobras
2001 - Vila Velha ES - Murmuratio, at the Vale do Rio Doce railway museum
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Memento Mori, at the Sérgio Porto Cultural Space
2002 - João Pessoa PB - Obliteratio, at the São Francisco Cultural Center
2003 - Recife PE - Individual, at the Aloísio Magalhães Museum of Modern Art - MAMAMM
2005 - Niterói RJ - Incertae SEDIS MAC/RJ
2005 - Recife PE - Axiom, in Amparo 60
Collective exhibitions
1989 - João Pessoa PB - 2nd Salon of New Plastic Artists of Paraíba, SESC Gallery - First Prize
1989 - João Pessoa PB - Exhibition Schedule, at the SESC Gallery
1989 - João Pessoa PB - 5th Municipal Salon of Plastic Arts, at the Contemporary Art Center - João Pessoa City Grand Prix
1989 - Olinda PE - Salão de Artes Plásticas de Pernambuco, at the Convention Center
1990 - João Pessoa PB - 2nd Arte-Current Arte Paraíba, at the Cultural Space
1990 - João Pessoa PB - Infinitely, at the Contemporary Art Center
1990 - João Pessoa PB - Art on Paper II, at Galeria Gamela
1991 - Curitiba PR - 48th Salão Paranaense, at MAC/PR
1991 - Havana (Cuba) - Cuba'91, at the Provincial Center for Plastic Arts y Diseño
1991 - João Pessoa PB - 5th Municipal Salon of Plastic Arts, at the Nucleus of Contemporary Art - Special Award
1991 - São Paulo SP - MAC/USP
1992 - João Pessoa PB - Workshop Berlin/Paraíba, at the Cultural Space
1992 - São Paulo SP - Annual Fine Arts Exhibition Program, at CCSP 
1992 - Marseille (France) - Le hors là, at the Tour du Roi Renè
1993 - Barcelona (Spain) - Collective, at Escola Massana
1993 - João Pessoa PB - Le Hors Là, at the Art Center Contemporary
1993 - Recife PE - Le hors là, at the State Museum
1993 - São Paulo SP - Visuality Nascente II, at MAC/USP
1994 - João Pessoa PB - Inauguration press conference, at the Visual Arts Center Tambiá
1994 - Salvador BA - 1st Mam-Bahia Salon of Plastic Arts, at MAM/BA
1994 - Vila Nova de Gaia (Portugal) - A look at the tropics, at the Teixeira
1995 - João Pessoa PB - Collective, at Galeria Gamela/Sebrae
1995 - Campina Grande PB - Visões do Borborema, at the Assis Chateaubriand Museum
1995 - João Pessoa PB - Collective, at the Varadouro Shed
1996 - Campina Grande PB - Mostra 96, at the Assis Chateaubriand Museum
1996 - João Pessoa PB - Mostra 96, at the Contemporary Art Center
1996 - João Pessoa PB - Visões do Cabo Branco, at the Cultural Space
1996 - João Pessoa PB - 80s: Emerging Artists, at the Center for Contemporary Art
1996 - João Pessoa PB - Apocalypse XII, at the São Francisco Cultural Center
1996 - São Paulo SP - Antarctica Artes com a Folha, in the Padre João Manoel Pavilion
1997 - Berlin (Germany) - Ausstellung der Dozenten, in the Quartier 206 - Friedrichstadtpassage
1997 - Greifswald (Germany) - Kunst Aus Brasilien, Ausstellungszentrum, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität
1997 - Havana (Cuba) - 6th Havana Biennial at the Contemporary Art Center Wifredo Lam
1997 - São Paulo SP - 25th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1997 - São Paulo SP - 1st Contemporary Heritages, at MAC/USP
1998 - Berlin (Germany) - Collective, at the Brazilian Cultural Institute - ICBRA
1998 - Maracaibo (Venezuela) - 3rd Barro Bienal de América Roberto Guevara, at the Maracaibo Lia Bermudez Arts Center
1998 - Niterói RJ - 25th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAC-Niterói
1998 - Recife PE - 25th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at the Museum of Modern Art Aloísio Magalhães - MAMAM
1998 - Salvador BA - 25th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/BA
1998 - São Paulo SP - Barro de América Roberto Guevara Biennale, at Mube
1999 - Porto Alegre RS - 2nd Biennial of Visual Arts of Mercosul, at Armazém do Cais do Porto
1999 - Goiânia GO - between me and the world..., at MAC/GO
1999 - São Paulo SP - Between the self and the world ..., at Funarte
1999 - São Paulo SP - Northeast, at Sesc Pompéia
1999 - Campina Grande PB - Contemporary Art of Paraíba, at the Assis Chateaubriand Art Museum
1999 - Paris (France) - Identities: Artists from Latin America y del Caribe, at the Galerie du Passage du Reux
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Extra-Large Extra-Small, at the Correios Cultural Center
1999 - São Paulo SP - Extra-Large Extra-Small, At Galeria Nara Roesler
1999 - Goiânia GO - Extra-Large Extra-Small
1999 - São Paulo SP - Nineteen Cabeças, at Adriana Penteado Contemporânea
2000 - Recife PE - Origin, at the Malakoff Cultural Observatory
2000 - Paris (France) - L'Art dans Le Monde, at Pont Alexandre III
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The private, at the CCCM
2001 - São Paulo SP - Figure-word, at the Paço das Artes
2001 - São Paulo SP - Autoretrato - Mirror of the Artist, at the Fiesp Cultural Center
2001 - Madrid (Spain) - ARCO - International Contemporary Art Fair
2002 - Curitiba PR - Works of Faxinal das Artes, at MAC/PR
2002 - Brasília DF - Fragments to its magnet: masterpieces of MAB, at the contemporary cultural space Venâncio
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caminhos do Contemporânea, at Paço Imperial
2002 - São Paulo SP - 25th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Sandra Cinto, José Rufino, at the Sérgio Cultural Space Porto
2002 - São Paulo SP - Paralela, in a shed located at Avenida Matarazzo, 530
2003 - São Paulo SP - Pele, Alma, at CCBB
2003 - Curitiba PR - Heterodoxy: Curitiba edition, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of Curitiba
2004 - Vitória ES - Heterodoxy: Vitória edition, at Casa Porto das Artes Plásticas
2004 - Fortaleza CE - Heterodoxy: Fortaleza edition, At the Dragão do Mar Center of Art and Culture
2004 - São Paulo SP - Heterodoxy: Latin American edition, at Galeria Marta Traba - Latin America Memorial
2004 - São Paulo SP - The Biennials: A Look at the Brazilian Production 1951/2002, at the Bergamin Gallery
2004 - Recife PE - Museum of Modern Art Aloísio Magalhães: Donations 2001 - 2004, at MAMAM
2005 - Recife PE - A graph, at Amparo Sixty Art Gallery
2005 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - NanoExposition, in Double Art
2005 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Game of Memory, at MAM/RJ
2005 - São Paulo SP - 5th Barro de América, at the Marta Traba Gallery - Latin America Memorial
2005 - São Paulo SP - BR 2005, at the Virgílio Gallery
2006 - Natal RN - 5x5, at the Casa da Ribeira Cultural Center
Source: Itaú Cultural
