Paulo Laender (Teófilo Otoni MG 1945)
Visual artist, architect, teacher.
Paulo Roberto Frade Laender moved to Belo Horizonte and began studying drawing with Maria Helena Andrés (1922) in 1962. Two years later, he founded the Grupo Oficina [Workshop Group] and held his first solo exhibition. In 1965, he lived in Rio de Janeiro, attended the printmaking studio of the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ and exhibited at the 8th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [São Paulo International Biennial]. The following year, he returned to Belo Horizonte and began studying architecture at the Escola de Arquitetura da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG [UFMG School of Architecture], graduating in 1970. In that period, he developed drawings and worked in film, jewelry design and set design. From 1970 to 1981, he taught at the UFMG School of Architecture and devoted himself to architecture and design, as well as producing sculptures, prints and drawings. He took part in the 12th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo in 1973. In 1981, he traveled through Europe and the East, carrying out studies and research. That year he took part in the exhibition Barroco Mineiro [Minas Gerais Baroque] at the Brazilian Trade Bureau in New York. From then on, he concentrated on sculpture while carrying out other activities in parallel. In 1983, he set up and directed the jewelry, casting and lapidary workshops of Bronfen-Laender. In 1991, he took part in the 21st Bienal Internacional de São Paulo. In 1995, he lived for five months in Barcelona, where he developed sculptures that were shown in a solo exhibition at Galeria Del Palau, as well as taking part in a group show with 10 Catalan artists at the Castel Doriol, both in Girona, Spain.
Critiques
"Paulo Laender, an artist from Minas Gerais, has done a little of everything - drawing, printmaking, jewelry, architecture, painting and sculpture. But in everything he has created so far, over more than 20 years, there is an underlying internal coherence, not always perceptible. A coherence that has something atavistic about it: self-absorbed, closed, uterine, topological forms, Baroque undulations and sinuosities, a certain attachment to craft values that coexist in him with the rationality of the architect and designer, the love of precious detail, the refinement of whimsical materials and textures, the meticulousness of drawing. (...) His painting does not abandon graphism, since drawing is part of the complex subjectivity of the mineiro and, as a self-referential work, it also refers to the forms explored in sculpture. These, as a theme for painting, suggest a recycled cubism: an interpenetration of forms and planes. In the turned forms, in the recesses and protrusions of the volumes, there is a certain nostalgia for craft and Baroque furniture. (...) At times, in some pieces, painting and sculpture come tensely close, or rather, the work stands halfway between one field and the other. Planar dimension: paintings that wish to be sculptures. There also emerges a monumental side - imaginary monuments - associated with a fantastic dimension (recalling a Max Ernst, for example) and an archaic heritage: totems, masks, architectures. All these inferences, approximations and influences, some more, others less conscious, as I have said, do not disfigure the unity of Paulo Laender's work; on the contrary, they reveal the breadth of his creative potential".
Frederico Morais
MORAIS, Frederico. In: LAENDER, Paulo. Paulo Laender: esculturas e pinturas. Rio de Janeiro: Galeria Bonino, 1988.
Solo Exhibitions
1964 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo
1966 - Ouro Preto MG - Solo, at Galeria Pilão
1967 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Guignard
1980 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Palácio das Artes
1985 - San Francisco (United States) - Solo, at OWL Gallery
1986 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Palácio das Artes
1986 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Paulo Figueiredo
1987 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Sala Corpo de Exposições
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Bonino
1988 - Vitória ES - Solo, at Galeria de Arte e Pesquisas da UFES
1989 - São Paulo SP - Escultura e Relevos [Sculpture and Reliefs], at Mônica Filgueiras de Almeida Galeria de Arte
1991 - São Paulo SP - Esculturas, Pinturas e Relevos [Sculptures, Paintings and Reliefs], at Espaço José Duarte Aguiar e Ricardo Camargo
1993 - São Paulo SP - Obras Recentes [Recent Works], at Galeria Nara Roesler
2001 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
2003 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Ricardo Camargo
Group Exhibitions
1964 - Belo Horizonte MG - 19º Salão Municipal de Belas Artes [19th Municipal Fine Arts Salon] - 3rd prize
1965 - São Paulo SP - 8ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [8th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1965 - São Paulo SP - 2ª Exposição do Jovem Desenho Nacional [2nd Young National Drawing Exhibition], at MAC/USP
1967 - São Paulo SP - 9ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [9th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1973 - São Paulo SP - 12ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [12th São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1975 - São Paulo SP - 6º Salão Global de Inverno [6th Global Winter Salon], at Masp
1978 - São Paulo SP - 10º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [10th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1979 - Belo Horizonte MG - 6º Salão Global de Inverno [6th Global Winter Salon], at Fundação Clóvis Salgado - Companhia de Dança de Minas Gerais
1981 - São Paulo SP - 13º Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira [13th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art], at MAM/SP
1981 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8º Salão Global de Inverno [8th Global Winter Salon], at MAM/RJ
1981 - São Paulo SP - 8º Salão Global de Inverno [8th Global Winter Salon], at Masp
1981 - Belo Horizonte MG - 8º Salão Global de Inverno [8th Global Winter Salon], at Fundação Palácio das Artes
1981 - New York (United States) - Barroco Mineiro [Minas Gerais Baroque], at Brazilian Trade Bureau
1986 - Belo Horizonte MG - 9º Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas: sudeste [9th National Visual Arts Salon: Southeast], at Fundação Clóvis Salgado - Palácio das Artes
1989 - Recife PE - Minas em Traços Gerais [Minas in General Lines], at MAC
1991 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition, at Mônica Filgueiras de Almeida Galeria de Arte
1991 - São Paulo SP - 21ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo [21st São Paulo International Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1992 - Belo Horizonte MG - Pequenas Arqueologias [Small Archaeologies], at Galeria Exlibris
1992 - Belo Horizonte MG - Utopias Contemporâneas [Contemporary Utopias], at Fundação Clóvis Salgado - Palácio das Artes
1992 - New York (United States) - Contemporary Art From Brazil, at Ledis Flan Gallery
1992 - Yokohama (Japan) - Feira Internacional de Arte em Yokohama [Yokohama International Art Fair]
1993 - Chicago (United States) - Chicago International Art Fair
1993 - Tokyo (Japan) - Verde Amarelo/Brazilian Front Art, at Fujita Vente Museum
1993 - Barcelona (Spain) - Exhibition, at Estúdio Manuel Álvarez
1996 - Madrid (Spain) - Cinco Artistas Mineiros [Five Artists from Minas Gerais], at Casa de América
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - Cinco Artistas Mineiros [Five Artists from Minas Gerais], at Ponteio Lar Shopping
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - Formação da Arte Contemporânea em Belo Horizonte [The Formation of Contemporary Art in Belo Horizonte], at MAP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Coleção 98 Skultura [Skultura Collection 98], at Skultura Galeria de Arte
1998 - São Paulo SP - Mito, Território, Permanência: Esculturas [Myth, Territory, Permanence: Sculptures], at Galeria Nara Roesler
2000 - Belo Horizonte MG - Presente de Reis [Epiphany Gift], at Kolams Galeria de Arte
2002 - São Paulo SP - Quem Faz as Bienais [Who Makes the Biennials], at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
Source: Itaú Cultural
