Deni Lantz, 1993, São Paulo | SP – Brazil

Deni Lantz was born in 1993 in the city of São Paulo where he currently lives and works.

He has graduated in visual arts from Unicamp – State University of Campinas – SP.

He has attended and exhibited in several shows at Casa da Xiclet Galeria in São Paulo.

At age of 13 he studied painting with the Argentine artist Juan José Balzi (1933-2017).

In 2012, he worked as an assistant to the artist Ernesto Bonato (1968) at Projeto Maré 0.1, as a printer of large-format woodcuts. He did painting monitoring with artist Paulo Pasta in 2020.

Deni Lantz's works evoke memories and echoes of the real world, objects and motifs that the artist chooses to inhabit the subtle boundary between the figurative and the abstract. In this way, the making plays a central role in his painting practice. Between pentimenti, overlays, sometimes with more pasty brushstrokes, multiple layers of paint, sometimes faster and more superficial, he explores different ways of applying the paint on canvas and revealing or veiling the reasons that tense the compositions. Often, Lantz finds his way of thinking more in abstraction and monochrome than in still life or landscape, the objectual character and materiality of his paintings become more protagonists than the chosen themes. In this sense, beeswax is an important material for the artist, since it provides transparency, paste and matteness at the same time; the brushes, short and hard, deposit and remove the paint at the same time; in his work, how to paint and what to paint are parts of the same question.

Research and interest in this space between figuration and abstraction, making, materiality and physicality are characteristics of the work, which is influenced by painters such as Armando Reverón, Morandi, Mark Rothko, Susan Frencon and John Zurier. His Brazilian references are such as Alfredo Volpi, Iberê Camargo, Sergio Sister and Paulo Pasta.

Group exhibitions

2022 Let The World Come ‘Round?, Teffia Gallery, Kingston, Nova Iorque, EUA

2007 “6th MERCOSECA – 2nd edition”, Casa da Xiclet Galeria – São Paulo, Brazil

2008 “V Salão da Casa da Xiclet”, Casa da Xiclet Galeria – São Paulo, Brazil

2009 “V Salão Rio Doce”, Casa da Xiclet Galeria – São Paulo, Brazil

2012 “Quatro Quartos", Casa de tijolo – São Paulo, Brazil

 "Retratos, o que não se vê", Casa de tijolo – São Paulo, Brazil

 "Maré.01", Gaia – Unicamp, Campinas, SP, Brazil

2013 "Loja de (in)conveniências", Galeria Mezanino – São Paulo, Brazil

 "Caixa: 1ª edição", Editora Caixa – São Paulo, Brazil

2014 "Menos", Casa de Tijolo – São Paulo, Brazil

Artistic residencies

2016 ''Barrer todo con Agua'', artist residency and exhibition in Havana, Cuba

Other projects

2018 art (cover and booklet images) and musical co-direction of the album Caminhando, by Daniel Arruda – São Paulo, Brazil

2019 book cover illustration for A marcha do Curupira – Theo M. Lubliner, Maurício Espósito and Leandro Ramos Pereira (organizers), Florestan Fernandes Study Group – São Paulo, Brazil