Nelson Leirner (São Paulo SP 1932 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 2020)
Nelson Leirner was a leading intermedia artist in Brazilian contemporary art, known for his critical and provocative stance toward the art system. Between 1947 and 1952, he lived in the United States, where he began a textile engineering course at the Lowell Technological Institute, in Massachusetts, although he did not complete it.
Back in Brazil in 1956, he began studying painting with Joan Ponç and, in 1958, attended the Atelier-Abstração, run by Samson Flexor. From the start of his career, Leirner developed a production marked by criticism of art institutions and their mechanisms of legitimation.
In 1966, he founded Grupo Rex with artists such as Wesley Duke Lee, Geraldo de Barros, Carlos Fajardo, José Resende and Frederico Nasser. The group promoted actions that questioned the traditional art circuit, such as the Exposição-Não-Exposição (Exhibition-Non-Exhibition), held in 1967, in which the artist gave his works away to the public for free.
That same year, he caused a stir by sending a stuffed pig to the 4th Salão de Arte Moderna de Brasília, as a direct criticism of the juries' selection criteria. He was also one of the pioneers in using billboards as an artistic medium and developed works with multiples in canvas and zippers on stretchers.
During the 1970s, he deepened his political criticism through series such as A Rebelião dos Animais (The Animals' Rebellion), presented in 1974, which addressed the context of the military regime in Brazil. The work earned him the award for best proposal of the year from the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte. In 1975, he again took a critical stance by protesting against the same institution's rejection of a photocopy work.
Between 1977 and 1997, he taught at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, where he influenced several generations of Brazilian artists. In 1997, he moved to Rio de Janeiro and coordinated the basic course at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage until the following year.
Critical Commentary
Nelson Leirner is the son of the sculptor Felícia Leirner and the businessman Isaí Leirner. Modern art is very present in his life from childhood. His parents help found the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo - MAM/SP and are close to much of the Brazilian avant-garde. However, this closeness does not immediately awaken Leirner's interest in art. He decides to become an artist only in the 1950s, inspired by works by Paul Klee. In 1956, he begins taking painting lessons with Joan Ponç. Two years later, he briefly attends Flexor's Atelier-Abstração. He is not enthusiastic about the courses. His canvases come close to the informal abstraction of painters such as Alberto Burri and Antoni Tàpies. Between 1961 and 1964, he continues his research into materials, but in another direction. Interested in Dadaist poetics, he makes his paintings with objects collected in the street, producing the series Apropriações (Appropriations).
In 1964, the artist abandons painting and begins working with ready-made, industrially manufactured elements. He collects everyday objects and displaces their meaning, as in Que Horas São D. Candida, 1964. His works lie between sculpture and object. Two years later, viewer participation is incorporated into works such as Você Faz Parte I and II, 1966. Also in 1966, he founds Grupo Rex with Wesley Duke Lee, Geraldo de Barros, Frederico Nasser, José Resende and Carlos Fajardo. The collective stages happenings and publishes the newspaper Rex Time. The group turns to issues such as art's relationship with the market, institutions and the public, all approached on the basis of the radical languages of the 1960s.
In 1967, he puts together the exhibition Da Produção em Massa de uma Pintura (On the Mass Production of a Painting). He shows the series Homenagem a Fontana (Homage to Fontana), one of the first series of multiples in the country. The "paintings" are industrially produced, made of zippers and fabrics, objects that traditionally have no artistic properties. That same year, he sends his Porco Empalhado (Stuffed Pig), 1966, to the 4th Salão de Arte Moderna de Brasília. The jury accepts the work. Leirner questions the result and asks for an explicit statement of the exhibition's admission criteria, sparking a controversy with critics such as Mário Pedrosa and Frederico Morais, known as the "happening of criticism".
From the 1970s on, the questioning content of his work shifts from direct action to an allegorical sense, often involving eroticism. The happening becomes less present than drawing and installation. At this time, Leirner devotes himself to other languages, such as design, multiples and experimental cinema.
The presence of elements of Brazilian popular culture, striking since the 1960s, grows from the 1980s on. In 1985, he creates the installation O Grande Combate (The Great Combat), in which he uses images of saints, Afro-Brazilian deities, children's dolls and animal replicas. He aims to turn what is considered banal into art. Since 2000, his work has appropriated artistic images trivialized by consumer society. With humor, he takes reproductions of Leonardo da Vinci's Gioconda [Mona Lisa], 1503/1506, and Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, 1917, as artistic subjects. With the same irony, the artist reproduces images of the Brazilian concrete tradition on cowhide, in the series Construtivismo Rural (Rural Constructivism).
Critiques
"An artist who in the 1960s made his contribution through provocative attitudes in the Brazilian art context - as with the presentation of a stuffed pig inside a crate, tied to a ham that was of course soon stolen by the public, before the jury of the 1967 Salão de Brasília - or with the Altar de Roberto Carlos, from the same period, which conceived an environment of worship and contemplation in which the main image, blended with popular religiosity, was the musical idol of the youth of the time, this artist was also the author of a happening of unusual violence, when he set a day and time to give the public whatever was inside Galeria Rex, in São Paulo, which was closing its activities at that time. At the same time, Nelson Leirner had a special predilection for appropriating industrial objects, transfigured into art objects with a fine sense of humor. This choice reveals the eminently urban character that permeates his work, of which his creative series Homenagem a Fontana is an example. This familiarity with industrial means would lead him to design, in parallel with the graphic production he has developed in recent years, in drawings of painful erotic charge".
Aracy Amaral
AMARAL, Aracy. Nelson Leirner. In: MODERNIDADE: arte brasileira do século XX. São Paulo: Hamburg, 1988.
"The idea of appropriation, central to Nelson Leirner's production, would take shape and acquire a particular character around 1965, with his exhibition at Galeria Atrium with Geraldo de Barros. In his works, this idea would contain both the notion of the objet trouvé (understood as an already-made object which, because of its attributes, stands out to the artist's eyes from the mass of anonymous objects) and that of the readymade (a mass-produced object, with no attribute distinguishing it from its counterparts, toward which one feels radical indifference). (...) If the first takes account of the artist's taste (not good taste, it should be stressed), the second tends to cancel it out. The coexistence of both is possible, as Leirner has shown, thanks to a line of reasoning that will run through his entire body of work and that consists in staging an encounter (we could call it copulation; the artist calls it Checkmate) between two objects, which ends up generating a third. This formula goes back to Lautréamont's famous aphorism: 'Beautiful as the chance encounter of an umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissecting table'".
Agnaldo Farias
FARIAS, Agnaldo. NELSON Leirner. In: TRIDIMENSIONALIDADE na arte brasileira do século XX. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural, 1997.
"The international scene in the 1960s was taken over by performances. More precisely, Leirner shows himself in tune with the theme of the commercialization of art, from the procedures of production to the critical reception of art. What 'business' underlies the artist's signature, and the various certificates and documents that legitimize the manufacture of authenticity, were recurring questions for Yves Klein, Ben Vautier (of the Fluxus group) and Claes Oldenburg. They sought to undermine a guarantee of truth in art. Le Magasin (early 1960s) and The Store (1961-62), by the last two respectively, involved procedures familiar to Leirner. Each in his own way sought to establish parity between the art object and a consumer product in capitalist society. To this lineage of happenings belongs Leirner's invitation to give his works away free of charge to the public who came to the event Exposição-Não-Exposição, at the closing of Rex Gallery & Sons.
The need to demystify the art object continued in the series Homenagem a Fontana (1967), large colored canvases in which the zipper mocks the already canonized slash: anyone can now open or close the pictorial plane. To conceptualize the value of art (the territory of the 'proper name'), Leirner put his 'fontanas' ('common noun') up for sale at prices derived from his cost spreadsheet, thus subjecting the work to a homespun lesson in economics. In this way, he shifted the discussion of art from the inaugural gesture (the nostalgic myth of the original) to the repeated, serial gesture. Years later, along the same lines, he used a mass-circulation newspaper to explain how to make multiples of his multiples. The point was to remove the auratic process from creation and bring art closer to the simplicity of 'everyday technology'. Democratizing the artist's product deserves a spectacle. In this sense, Leirner's slogan should be compared with Jean Tinguely's méta-matics of 1959, which proclaimed 'do it yourself and create your own abstract painting'. To Michel Foucault's question, 'What is an author?', Leirner responded with a practical reflection, which includes extensive experience as a teacher, and began a troubled relationship with the ideological apparatus responsible for the institutionalization of art (criticism, the museum, the gallery, the market)".
Lisette Lagnado
LAGNADO, Lisette. O combate entre a natureza fetichista da arte e sua historização. In: PEDROSA, Adriano (Org.). Nelson Leirner e [and]) Iran do Espírito Santo: 48. Biennale di Venezia - Padiglione Brasile. São Paulo: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 1999. p. 42-43.
"For an analysis of the question of authorship and authority, of the artist's selecting gesture, it should be stressed that, although he appropriates pre-existing images and objects, Leirner has no interest in the silence and neutrality of the original readymades. A striking example of this intention is provided by the three installations made between 1984 and 1986, gathering hundreds of objects ranging from garden gnomes, cheap toys, rubber insects and plaster saints to plastic animals, organized by category as a winding procession spread across the exhibition space. Handmade and industrial objects, intensely colored and with kitsch appeal, arranged with solemnity, evoked a sense of humor far removed from the coldness of Duchamp's rationalism. Each of the objects was chosen because it was invested with an emotional charge, whether through allusion to religious piety (understood in the most ecumenical sense possible), through naive aspiration to pseudo-refinement, through a sense of play or through caricatural realism. Thus, the same pieces may recur at different moments: in O Grande Desfile, 1984, they make up the fetishes of a triumphal march; in O Grande Combate, 1985, they become an epic, with plastic bombers in the vanguard and plaster guardian angels in the rearguard, which in O Grande Enterro, 1986, turned into members of a sorrowful funeral procession. (...)
The desacralization of art appears in his trajectory as one of the ways of making the very existence of art possible. Alterations of and satirical references to a work considered an indisputable landmark of art history are always accompanied by manipulations involving the exclusion and addition of elements, setting up a checkmate situation. If the limit situation suggests the annihilation of its target, according to Leirner's theory, the union of two elements must generate a third, which even has a meaning of its own when the operation is successful".
Maria Isabel Branco Ribeiro
RIBEIRO, Maria Isabel Branco. Nelson Leirner. In: POR que Duchamp? Leituras duchampianas por artistas e críticos brasileiros. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural: Paço das Artes, 1999. p. 60-61.
Testimonials
"(...) For three or four years, many things began to happen in my career; resounding things, though strange. I noticed, for example, that after six months of painting I won a prize at a salon. After a year of work I was exhibiting at the best gallery in São Paulo, the São Luiz, which showed my drawings without seeing them beforehand. Six more months and I got into the Bienal; and Stanislawsky, a Polish critic of international renown, added a long review to my work. Little by little, you begin to realize the reason for it all. The quality of my work did not have the importance it was given. It was purely a matter of social prestige. I could see what I was doing at the time, and I know it was really bad. Someone who has worked for six months cannot suddenly appear and have his work accepted. He can only show that he has talent. Aware of what was happening, I began to ask questions about the criteria of judgment and about the work of art itself. All of this put the value of things in check and in doubt. I understood that you can build up any guy at all, even without seeing his work. It was natural that I should begin to let out everything that was inside me, logically in a spirit of contestation. That was my beginning".
Nelson Leirner
LEIRNER, Nelson. O porco, ou o happening da crítica. In: ___. Retrospectiva Nelson Leirner. São Paulo: Paço das Artes, 1994. p. 41-42.
Solo Exhibitions
1960 - São Paulo SP - Solo, Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1961 - São Paulo SP - Solo, Galeria São Luís
1964 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Solarium
1965 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Solo, Museo de Arte Moderno
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, Espaço ABC
1965 - São Paulo SP - Solo, Atrium Galeria de Arte
1967 - São Paulo SP - Exposição-Não-Exposição (Exhibition-Non-Exhibition), Rex Gallery & Sons
1967 - São Paulo SP - Homage to Fontana, Seta Galeria de Arte
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Love Life of a Gorilla, Museu de Arte Moderna
1968 - São Paulo SP - Aprenda Colorindo Gozar a Cor, 100 billboards spread across the city
1968 - São Paulo SP - Aprenda Colorir Gozando/Gozar Colorindo, Galeria Art-Art
1969 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Playground, at Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ
1969 - São Paulo SP - Playground, at Museu de Arte de São Paulo - Masp
1970 - São Paulo SP - Nelson Leirner: Plastics, Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Multiples Cubed, Galeria de Arte Ipanema
1971 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Everyday Technology, Galeria do Grupo B
1971 - São Paulo SP - Multiples Cubed, Galeria Inter-Design
1972 - São Paulo SP - Everyday Technologies, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Banners and Drawings, Galeria Grupo B
1974 - Austin (United States) - A Rebelião dos Animais (The Animals' Rebellion), University of Texas at Austin. University Art Museum
1974 - São Paulo SP - A Rebelião dos Animais (The Animals' Rebellion), Museu de Arte de São Paulo
1974 - Washington DC (United States) - A Rebelião dos Animais (The Animals' Rebellion), Brazilian-American Cultural Institute
1975 - São Paulo SP - Sport Is Culture, Galeria Arte Global
1977 - São Paulo SP - Nelson Leirner: Watercolors, Galeria Luisa Strina
1977 - São Paulo SP - The Artist and the Company, Museu de Arte de São Paulo
1978 - São Paulo SP - A Hard Line, Galeria Luisa Strina
1978 - São Paulo SP - Solo, Galeria Luisa Strina
1978 - São Paulo SP - A Not-Hard Line, Galeria Luisa Strina
1980 - São Paulo SP - Pay to See, Galeria Múltipla de Arte
1983 - São Paulo SP - Checkmate and Puzz, Galeria Luisa Strina
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Grande Desfile (The Great Parade), Espaço ABC
1984 - São Paulo SP - Expose Yourself to Art, Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1984 - São Paulo SP - O Grande Desfile (The Great Parade), at MAC/USP
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Vignettes, Footers and Monograms, GB ARTe
1985 - São Paulo SP - O Grande Combate (The Great Combat), Galeria Luisa Strina
1987 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition to Be... Read, Galeria Luisa Strina
1989 - São Paulo SP - Projeto Aula (Lesson Project), Galeria Luisa Strina
1990 - São Paulo SP - The Last Supper, Galeria Luisa Strina
1991 - New York (United States) - Solo, at Grey Art Gallery and Study Center
1992 - São Paulo SP - Performance of the State, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1993 - São Paulo SP - Garden of Delights, Capela do Morumbi
1994 - São Paulo SP - Homage to Fontana, Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1994 - São Paulo SP - Nelson Leirner: Retrospective, Paço das Artes
1995 - São Paulo SP - Oswaldo's Bazaar, Escritório de Arte Oswaldo Kathalian
1997 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Nelson Leirner: A Journey..., Centro Cultural Light
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Works Made in a Rocking Chair Watching Television, at Galeria Brito Cimino
1998 - São Paulo SP - Nelson Leirner: An Installation, Galeria Brito Cimino
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Nelson Leirner: Clonings, Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer
2001 - São Paulo SP - Projeto Parede. Nelson Leirner, Museu de Arte Moderna
2002 - Brasília DF - Adoração (Adoration)
2002 - Recife PE - Adoração (Adoration), Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães
2002 - São Paulo SP - Art and Non-Art, Brito Cimino Arte Contemporânea e Moderna
2002 - São Paulo SP - Nelson Before N. Leirner, Centro Universitário Maria Antonia
2003 - Paris (France) - Assim é... Se lhe Parece (So It Is... If You Think So), Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie
2003 - Porto (Portugal) - One + Two + Thousand, Culturgest
2003 - São Paulo SP - Assim é... Se lhe Parece (So It Is... If You Think So), Galeria Brito Cimino
2004 - Curitiba PR - N.Leirner 1994+10, Museu Oscar Niemeyer
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Variations, Museu da Chácara do Céu
2004 - São Paulo SP - Once Upon a Time..., at Galeria Brito Cimino
2004 - São Paulo SP - N.Leirner 1994+10: From Drawing to Installation, Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2004 - São Paulo SP - The Many Faces of Nelson Leirner, Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2005 - Niterói RJ - Why Museum?, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói
2005 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Hilarious Concert, Museu da Chácara do Céu
2006 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, Bolsa de Arte de Porto Alegre
2006 - São Paulo SP - A lot (e), Galeria Brito Cimino
2007 - Porto Alegre RS - Solo, Bolsa de Arte de Porto Alegre
2007 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, Silvia Cintra Galeria de Arte
2007 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Power and Affection, Galeria Box 4
2008 - São Paulo SP - For Sale, Celma Albuquerque Galeria de Arte
2008 - Vila Velha ES - Dressed in White, Museu Vale do Rio Doce
2009 - São Paulo SP - Ocupação Nelson Leirner, Itaú Cultural
2010 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Stripencores and Others, Silvia Cintra Galeria de Arte
Group Exhibitions
1958 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - bronze medal
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Salon of Modern Art, at MAM/RJ
1959 - São Paulo SP - 8th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1960 - Belo Horizonte MG - 15th Belo Horizonte City Fine Arts Salon, at MAP
1960 - São Paulo SP - 9th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1960 - São Paulo SP - Nelson Leirner, Ismênia Coaracy, Yara Tupynambá, Fernando Odriozola, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1961 - Belo Horizonte MG - 16th Belo Horizonte City Fine Arts Salon, at MAP
1961 - Curitiba PR - 2nd Curitiba Annual Salon, at Museu de Arte do Paraná
1961 - São Paulo SP - 10th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - acquisition prize
1962 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th National Salon of Modern Art
1962 - São Paulo SP - 11th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia
1963 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 12th National Salon of Modern Art
1963 - São Paulo SP - 12th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, at Galeria Prestes Maia - silver medal
1963 - São Paulo SP - 7th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1963 - São Paulo SP - Labor Salon, at Galeria de Arte das Folhas
1964 - Porto Alegre RS - Nelson Leirner and Giselda Leirner, at Margs
1964 - São Paulo SP - Nelson Leirner and Giselda Leirner, at Galeria Solarium
1965 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Esso Salon of Young Artists, at MAM/RJ
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1965 - São Paulo SP - Geraldo de Barros and Nelson Leirner, at Atrium Galeria de Arte
1965 - São Paulo SP - Propostas 65, at MAB/Faap
1965 - São Paulo SP - 1st Esso Salon of Young Artists, at MAC/USP
1966 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Rex: Inaugural Exhibition, at Rex Gallery & Sons
1966 - São Paulo SP - Discovery of America, at Rex Gallery & Sons
1966 - São Paulo SP - Flash Back, at Rex Gallery & Sons
1967 - Brasília DF - 4th Federal District Salon of Modern Art, at Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Nova Objetividade Brasileira (New Brazilian Objectivity), at MAM/RJ
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal - Itamaraty Prize
1967 - São Paulo SP - Flags in the Square, at Esquina da Avenida Brasil com a Rua Augusta
1967 - São Paulo SP - Exposição-Não-Exposição (Exhibition-Non-Exhibition)
1967 - Tokyo (Japan) - 9th Tokyo Biennial - Mainichi Shimbun Prize
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Flags in the Square, at Praça General Osório
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Brazilian Artist and Mass Iconography, at Esdi
1968 - Salvador BA - 2nd National Biennial of Visual Arts, at MAM/BA
1968 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Young Contemporary Art, at MAC/USP
1968 - São Paulo SP - First São Paulo Opinion Fair, at Teatro Ruth Escobar
1968 - São Paulo SP - 17th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art
1969 - Porto Alegre RS - 2nd Young Contemporary Art, at Margs
1969 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Young Contemporary Art, at MAC/USP
1970 - Belo Horizonte MG - Object and Participation, at Palácio das Artes
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later, at Galeria Collectio
1972 - São Paulo SP - 4th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Multiplied Art, at Múltipla de Arte
1972 - São Paulo SP - Art/Brazil/Today: 50 Years Later, at Galeria da Collectio
1972 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo National Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1972 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Multiples, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
1973 - Brussels (Belgium) - Image du Brésil, at Manhattan Center
1974 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Luisa Strina: Inaugural Exhibition, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1975 - Birmingham (United States) - Brazilian Graphics, at Birmingham Museum of Art
1975 - Curitiba PR - Art in the City, at MAC/PR
1976 - Campinas SP - 10th Campinas Contemporary Art Salon, at MACC
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Document/Debate, at MAM/RJ
1976 - Salvador BA - Brazilian Art of the 1960s/70s in the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at MAM/BA
1976 - São Paulo SP - Art at the Centro Campestre, at Sesc Pompéia
1977 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Art of the 1960s/70s in the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1977 - Recife PE - Brazilian Art of the 1960s/70s in the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Casarão de João Alfredo
1977 - Washington (United States) - Recent Latin American Drawings 1969-1976: lines of vision
1978 - São Paulo SP - 10th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1978 - São Paulo SP - The Object in Art: Brazil in the 1960s, at MAB/Faap
1979 - Curitiba PR - 2nd Curitiba Annual Printmaking Show, at Centro de Criatividade
1979 - São Paulo SP - Multiples and Objects, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
1979 - São Paulo SP - Return to the Figure: The 1960s, at Museu Lasar Segall
1981 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Brazilian Artists, at Galeria de Arte São Paulo
1982 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Brazil 60 Years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
1982 - London (England) - Brazil 60 Years of Modern Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at Barbican Art Gallery
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Universe of Football, at MAM/RJ
1982 - São Paulo SP - Artemicro, at MIS/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection: Portrait and Self-Portrait of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Tradition and Rupture: A Synthesis of Brazilian Art and Culture, at Fundação Bienal
1985 - São Paulo SP - 16th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Art New Media/Multimedia: Brazil 70s/80s, at MAB/Faap
1985 - São Paulo SP - Trends of the Artist's Book in Brazil, at CCSP
1986 - Fortaleza CE - 1st International Exhibition of Ephemeral Sculptures, at Fundação Demócrito Rocha
1986 - São Paulo SP - XX-XXI: A Turn of the Century, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Weave of Taste: Another Look at Everyday Life, at Fundação Bienal
1987 - Paris (France) - Modernidade: Brazilian Art of the 20th Century, at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 88 x 68: A Review of the Years
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Le déjeuner sur l'art: Manet in Brazil, at EAV/Parque Lage
1988 - São Paulo SP - 19th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo SP - 34 Contemporary Brazilian Artists, at Subdistrito Comercial de Arte
1988 - São Paulo SP - 63/66 Figure and Object, at Galeria Millan
1988 - São Paulo SP - Modernidade: Brazilian Art of the 20th Century, at MAM/SP
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1989 - São Paulo SP - Journey to Paper in the Brazilian Biennials, at MAM/SP
1990 - Brasília DF - Brasília Visual Arts Prize, at MAB/DF
1990 - São Paulo SP - 21st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1990 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art, at MAC/USP
1990 - São Paulo SP - Bardi: 45 São Paulo Artists Celebrate the Professor's 90th Birthday, at Masp
1991 - New York (United States) - Brazilian Art Today, at Grey Art Gallery
1991 - São Paulo SP - 22nd Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Nowadays... Avenida Central, at MNBA
1992 - São Paulo SP - The Seduction of Volumes: The Three-Dimensional Works of MAC, at MAC/USP
1992 - São Paulo SP - The 1960s/70s: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1993 - São Paulo SP - The Presence of the Ready-Made: 80 Years, at MAC/USP
1994 - Belo Horizonte MG - The Ephemeral in Brazilian Art: 1960s/70s
1994 - Fortaleza CE - Artist's Book, at Centro de Artes Visuais Raimundo Cela
1994 - Penápolis SP - The Ephemeral in Brazilian Art: 1960s/70s, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1994 - São Paulo SP - Flags: 60 Artists Celebrate USP's 60 Years, at MAC/USP
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX, at Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection: Portrait and Self-Portrait of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1994 - São Paulo SP - The Ephemeral in Brazilian Art: 1960s/70s, at Itaú Cultural
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Perverse Childhood: Fables on Memory and Time, at MAM/RJ
1995 - Salvador BA - Perverse Childhood: Fables on Memory and Time, at MAM/BA
1995 - São Paulo SP - Drawing in São Paulo: 1956-1995, at Galeria Nara Roesler
1995 - São Paulo SP - Projeto Contato, at Galeria Sesc Paulista
1995 - São Paulo SP - 1st United Artists, at Casa das Rosas
1996 - Brasília DF - The Ephemeral in Brazilian Art: 1960s/70s, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1996 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - América Latina'96 me el Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
1996 - São Paulo SP - 4th Studio Unesp Sesc Senai of Image Technologies, at Sesc Pompéia
1996 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Art: 50 Years of History in the MAC/USP Collection 1920-1970, at MAC/USP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Flags, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
1996 - São Paulo SP - Ex Libris/Home Page, at Paço das Artes
1996 - São Paulo SP - All That Glitters Is Not Gold, at Galeria Nara Roesler
1996 - Uberlândia MG - Art in the Hospital, at UFU
1997 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Book Signing Night, at EAV/Parque Lage
1997 - São Paulo SP - The City of Artists, at MAC/USP
1997 - São Paulo SP - Cubed, at Paço das Artes
1997 - São Paulo SP - Art Support Computer, at Casa das Rosas
1997 - São Paulo SP - Brito Cimino Arte Contemporânea: Inaugural Exhibition, at Galeria Brito Cimino
1997 - São Paulo SP - 1st Contemporary Legacies, at MAC/USP
1997 - São Paulo SP - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Brasília DF - Football Art, at Ministério das Relações Exteriores
1998 - Brasília DF - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Niterói RJ - Mirror of the Bienal, at MAC/Niterói
1998 - Penápolis SP - Three-Dimensionality in 20th-Century Brazilian Art, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16th National Salon of Visual Arts, at MAM/RJ
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Egg, at EAV/Parque Lage
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Thirty Years of '68, at CCBB
1998 - São Paulo SP - 30th Art Annual, at Faap
1998 - São Paulo SP - Canibáliafetiva, at A Estufa
1998 - São Paulo SP - Figurations: 30 Years in Brazilian Art, at MAC/USP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Frontiers, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - São Paulo SP - Cultural Iconoclasms, at Casa das Rosas
1998 - São Paulo SP - Multiples, at Valu Oria Galeria de Arte
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ, at Masp
1998 - São Paulo SP - Selection, at Galeria Brito Cimino
1999 - Paris (France) - International Contemporary Art Fair
1999 - Porto Alegre RS - Cloning, at Bolsa de Arte
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Image of the Sound of Chico Buarque, at Paço Imperial
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Cloning, at A. M. Niemeyer - Galeria
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Everyday Life/Art. Object 1960s/90s, at MAM/RJ
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Hierarchy?, at Paço Imperial
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Johnnie Walker Prize, at MNBA
1999 - São Paulo SP - Everyday Life/Art. Consumption, at Itaú Cultural
1999 - São Paulo SP - Everyday Life/Art. Object 1960s/90s, at Itaú Cultural
1999 - São Paulo SP - Enigmas, at Galeria Brito Cimino
1999 - São Paulo SP - The Sleep of Reason, at MAM/SP
1999 - São Paulo SP - 26th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1999 - São Paulo SP - Parallèle, at Galeria Brito Cimino
1999 - São Paulo SP - Why Duchamp?, at Paço das Artes
1999 - Venice (Italy) - 48th Venice Biennale
2000 - Belo Horizonte MG - Investigations: Are They or Aren't They Prints?, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - Brasília DF - Investigations: Are They or Aren't They Prints?, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2000 - Düsseldorf (Germany) - The Fifth Element: money and art, at Kunsthalle Grabbeplatz
2000 - Fortaleza CE - 26th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - With a Whole Ocean to Swim, at Culturgest
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 20th Century: Art of Brazil, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
2000 - Niterói RJ - 26th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAC/Niterói
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilianness, at Centro Cultural Light
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Black Humor in the Female Universe, at Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Artists' Bardi, at Espaço Cultural dos Correios
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Situations: Brazilian Art of the 1970s, at Fundação Casa França-Brasil
2000 - Salvador BA - Visual Ironies, at Paulo Darzé Galeria de Arte
2000 - São Paulo SP - Year Three, at Galeria Brito Cimino
2000 - São Paulo SP - Conceptual Art and Conceptualisms: The 1970s in the MAC/USP Collection, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - São Paulo SP - Art and Eroticism, at Galeria Nara Roesler
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brasil + 500 Mostra do Redescobrimento, at Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo SP - Just Between Us, at Paço das Artes
2000 - São Paulo SP - Cow Parade
2000 - São Paulo SP - Black Humor in the Female Universe, at Paço das Artes
2000 - São Paulo SP - Illy Collection/Artists from Brazil, at MuBE
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Artists' Bardi, at Memorial da América Latina. Galeria Marta Traba
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Role of Art, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - São Paulo SP - New Work, at MAC/USP
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Angels Are Back, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2000 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Expanded Territory, at Sesc Pompéia
2000 - São Paulo SP - Three, at Galeria Brito Cimino
2000 - Uberlândia MG - Flags in the Museum, at Museu Universitário de Arte
2001 - Basel (Switzerland) - 32nd Basel International Art Fair
2001 - Juazeiro do Norte CE - 1st Cariri Art Biennial
2001 - Madrid (Spain) - Arco/2001, at Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I
2001 - Beijing (China) - 11 Brazilian Artists in China
2001 - São Paulo SP - The 1970s: Trajectories, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - São Paulo SP - Cutouts, at Galeria Brito Cimino
2001 - São Paulo SP - The Overexcited Body: Art and Sport in Contemporary Society, at Sesc Pompéia
2001 - São Paulo SP - The Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Washington (United States) - Virgin Territory: women, gender, and history in contemporary brazilian art, at National Museum of Women in the Arts
2002 - Brasília DF - Fragments to Your Magnet, at Espaço Cultural Contemporâneo Venâncio
2002 - Fortaleza CE - Ceará Rediscovers Brazil, at Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura
2002 - Liverpool (England) - Pot
2002 - Niterói RJ - Sattamini Collection: Moderns and Contemporaries, at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Niterói RJ - Dialogue, Antagonism and Replication in the Sattamini Collection, at MAC/Niterói
2002 - Porto Alegre RS - Appropriations and Collections, at Santander Cultural
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Walking with Faith..., at Galeria Sesc Copacabana
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - São Paulo SP - 25th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
2002 - São Paulo SP - Appropriated Images, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Map of Now: Recent Brazilian Art in the João Sattamini Collection of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2002 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Multiples 30 Years Later, at Múltipla de Arte
2002 - São Paulo SP - Open Opera: Celebration, at Casa das Rosas
2002 - São Paulo SP - Paralela, at a warehouse on Avenida Matarazzo, 530
2002 - São Paulo SP - Pot, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2003 - Iowa City (United States) - Layers of Brazilian Art, at Faulconer Gallery
2003 - Niterói RJ - Appropriations: Short Circuit of Participatory Experiences, at MAC/Niterói
2003 - Recife PE - Seeing Again/Seeing the New, at Mamam
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Art in Motion, at Espaço BNDES
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fiat Lux: Light in Art, at Centro Cultural da Justiça Federal
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Grupo Rex/Escola Brasil, at MAM/RJ
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Subversion of Media, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Approaches to the Pop Spirit: 1963-1968, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Art and Society: A Controversial Relationship, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Arteconhecimento: 70 Years of USP, at MAC/USP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Constructivism and Form as Clothing, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAC USP 40 Years: Contemporary Interfaces, at MAC/USP
2003 - São Paulo SP - My Friends, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Order and Vertigo, at CCBB
2003 - São Paulo SP - Tomie Ohtake in the Spiritual Weave of Brazilian Art, at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - In Art Everything Can Be True and Everything Can Be False, at Anna Maria Niemeyer Galeria de Arte
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Tomie Ohtake in the Spiritual Weave of Brazilian Art, at MNBA
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - True or False, at Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer
2004 - São Paulo SP - Paper Cabinet, at CCSP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Reincarnated Painting, at Paço das Artes
2004 - São Paulo SP - Art Room, at Galeria Brito Cimino
2004 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Version, at Galeria Brito Cimino
2005 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group Show 2005, at Mercedes Viegas Escritório de Arte
2005 - São Paulo SP - The Body in Brazilian Contemporary Art, at Itaú Cultural
Source: Itaú Cultural
