Rodrigo Andrade (São Paulo SP 1962)
Rodrigo Andrade is a painter, printmaker and graphic artist. He was born in São Paulo in 1962 and began training in printmaking in Sérgio Fingermann's studio in 1977. The following year, he attended the Studio of Graphics Arts in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1981, he studied drawing with Carlos Fajardo and, between 1981 and 1982, took printmaking and painting courses at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Back in Brazil, he was a member of the Casa 7 group from 1982 to 1985.
In 1984, he took part in the 2nd Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea [São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon], where he received the newcomer prize. The following year, he took part in the 18th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo and in the 8th Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas [National Visual Arts Salon] in Rio de Janeiro, where he received the acquisition prize.
He held his first solo exhibition in 1986, at the Subdistrito Comercial de Arte in São Paulo. Since 1987, he has worked as a graphic artist for magazines and books, producing covers for the magazine Veja between 1991 and 1998. In 1991, he received the Prêmio Brasília de Artes Plásticas [Brasília Visual Arts Prize], awarded by the Museu de Arte de Brasília (MAB). That same year, he took part as a teacher in the project A Produção Refletida [Reflected Production] at the Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade in São Paulo. Since 2001, he has taught courses on contemporary art at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM/SP).
Critical Commentary
In the early 1980s, Rodrigo Andrade, like other artists of the Casa 7 group, produced works that show affinities with the output of the German neo-expressionists and also refer to the work of the American painter Philip Guston. At that time, Andrade painted large-format canvases with broad, heavily textured brushstrokes and contrasting colors. As the critic Roberto Pontual notes, in his work the figures, objects and scenes, usually interiors, undergo a fragmentation that does not conceal their existence but merely suspends it in the condition of a puzzle that the eye reassembles. From 1985, his painting reveals a gestural quality that dissolves the more evident compositions of his earlier work.
From 1999, Andrade's work underwent major changes. He showed canvases with rectangular or circular monochrome shapes arranged on neutral surfaces. As the critic Adriano Pedrosa points out, his paintings seem simple, yet an attentive eye notices that there is something disquieting in this apparent simplicity. The arrangement of the shapes, too close to one another or to the edges of the canvas, the intense chromatic relationships between the colors of the figures and the background, and the paint that runs beyond the area delimited by the figures reveal a questioning of the tradition of geometric abstraction. His works allude to signs and graphic marks found in the urban environment, but emptied of content and messages.
Lives and works in São Paulo.
Solo Exhibitions
2014 - Pinturas de Onda, Mato e Ruína [Paintings of Wave, Brush and Ruin], Galeria Millan, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2013 - Pinturas de Estrada [Road Paintings], Centro Cultural Maria Antonia, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2011 - Velha Ponte de Pedra e Outras Pinturas [Old Stone Bridge and Other Paintings], Galeria Millan, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2010 - Óleo Sobre [Oil On], Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2010 - Matéria Noturna [Nocturnal Matter], 29ª Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2008 - Pinturas para Peixes e Outras Pinturas [Paintings for Fish and Other Paintings], Marília Razuk Galeria de Arte, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2006 - Paintings: Selection 99-06, Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
2006 - Paredes da Caixa [Walls of Caixa], Museu da Caixa Cultural, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2005 - Marília Razuk Galeria de Arte, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2003 - Passagem [Passage], Galeria 10,20x3,60, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2001 - Site specific – oil on wall, Lanches Alvorada, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2000 - Projeto Parede [Wall Project], Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2000 - Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2000 - Espaço de Arte MAM/Nestlé, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1999 - Marília Razuk Galeria de Arte, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1998 - Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1997 - Galeria Casa da Imagem, Curitiba, PR, Brazil
1997 - Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1995 - Galeria Camargo Vilaça, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1994 - Passagem [Passage], Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1992 - Galeria Camargo Vilaça, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1990 - Drawings, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1989 - Subdistrito Comercial de Arte, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1989 - Galeria Rodrigo Mello Franco de Andrade, FUNARTE, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1986 - Subdistrito Comercial de Arte, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Group Exhibitions
2014 - Dialogues with Palatnik, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2014 - Brazil: Arbeit und Freundschaft, Pivô, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2014 - Único [Unique], Carbono Galeria, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2013 - Lugar Nenhum [Nowhere], Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2013 - 30 x Bienal, Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2010 - 29th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2009 - Atenção: Estratégias para Perceber a Arte [Attention: Strategies for Perceiving Art], Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2009 - Objeto Imaginado [Imagined Object], Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2008 - Paralela, Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2008 - Cover, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2007 - 80/90 Modernos Pós-Modernos etc [80/90 Moderns Postmoderns etc], Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2006 - Ao Mesmo Tempo o Nosso Tempo [At the Same Time Our Time], Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2006 - Paralela, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2006 - Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, OCA, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2005 - Panorama of Brazilian Art, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2004 - Como Vai Você, Geração 80? [How Are You, 1980s Generation?], Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2004 - Bahia Contemporary Art Salon (Beth Lagardere Prize), Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brazil
2003 - 2080, Art in the 1980s, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2003 - Rodrigo Andrade, Leda Catunda and Marco Giannotti, Galeria Ária, Recife, PE, Brazil
2002 - 20ANOS20Artistas, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2002 - Matéria Prima [Raw Material], Novo Museu de Curitiba, Curitiba, PR, Brazil
2002 - Color in Brazilian Painting, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2001 - The Spirit of Our Time (Dulce and João Carlos F. Ferraz Collection), Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2001 - O Espelho Cego [The Blind Mirror] – Marcantonio Vilaça Collection, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2001 - Rodrigo Andrade and Fabio Miguez, Galeria Bauhaus, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil
2000 - Contemporary Drawing, Centro Cultural de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2000 - Recent Donations, Centro Cultural de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1999 - United Artists, Casa das Rosas, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1998 - Geração 80 [1980s Generation], Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1998 - The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art, Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1997 - Recent Donations (Ruben Breitman Collection), Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1997 - Arte/Cidade III [Art/City III], Ruínas do Moinho Santista, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1997 - Contemporary Artists, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Curitiba, Curitiba, PR, Brazil
1996 - Panorama of Brazilian Art, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1996 - João Leão Sattamini Collection Show, Museu de Arte Moderna de Niterói, Niterói, RJ, Brazil
1992 - 13 São Paulo Artists, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1991 - BR 80 Pintura Brasil [BR 80 Brazilian Painting], Galeria Itaú, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1991 - Brasil — La Nueva Generación, Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela
1991 - Viva Brasil Viva, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
1990 - Art Cologne, Cologne, Germany
1990 - Brasília Visual Arts Prize, Museu de Arte de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil
1988 - Recent Tendencies, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1987 - Entre Dois Séculos [Between Two Centuries] (Gilberto Chateaubriand coll.), Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1986 - 6th Inter-American Biennial, Cali, Colombia
1986 - Segunda Bienal de La Habana [Second Havana Biennial], Centro Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba
1986 - Latin American Biennial of Art on Paper, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1985 - Casa 7, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1985 - Arte na Rua II [Art in the Street II], site-specific - billboard painting, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1985 - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1985 - 18th São Paulo International Biennial, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1984 - Painting, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1983 - Piracicaba Contemporary Art Salon, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil
1980 - Intaglio Printmaking, Galeria Tenda, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1980 - São José dos Campos Contemporary Art Salon, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil
Public Collections
Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brasil.
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Instituto Cultural Itaú, São Paulo, Brasil
Awards
2004 - Vitae Visual Arts Grant, Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1985 - Acquisition Prize - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1984 - Newcomer Prize - Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1983 - Acquisition Prize - Piracicaba Contemporary Art Salon, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil
1979 - Acquisition Prize - São José dos Campos Contemporary Art Salon, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil
