Aurelino dos Santos
1942, Salvador | BA - Brazil
Aurelino dos Santos, who works mainly with painting, has also tried other forms of artistic support, such as tapestry. His works, where geometrisation is the most significant characteristic, represent an idealised architecture with planes, forms and colours. The plastic artist constructs landscapes, seem from above and from the side at the same time, with strong colours and a mix of several different references, passing through phases of Baroque, Concretism and Neoconcretism. Being over 70 years old, Aurelino, who lives in an extremely basic house in the vicinity of Ondina, a Salvador neighbourhood, produces art on a compulsive basis.
He does not know how to read or write, and can only write his name as if he was drawing, with great difficulty of penetration into the universe of language. Accompanied with a madness of unknown and even mysterious reasons, he walks along the streets talking to himself, collecting miscellaneous materials that are moulds for the initial strokes of his work. Everything in the works of Aurelino dos Santos comes down to geometry. The landscapes drawn by the artist, bringing out urban life in a unique manner, are formed from triangles, circles and rectangular forms. The organisation of these forms within his pictures – which, in fact, he never keeps – provokes deep questioning, as it is disorganisation that seems to dominate his mind.
Source: Afro Brazil museum.
Individual Exhibitions:
2022 Aurelino: On the urban margins, Galeria Simões de Assis, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2020 Aurelino dos Santos: Obsessive Construction, Museu Nacional da República, Brasília, Brazil
2019 Aurelino dos Santos – The Leter is what makes the world, Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brasil
2013 Aurelino | paintings, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2011 Transfiguration of the Royal Museum Afro - Brazil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Collective Exhibitions:
2021 The Lyric Machine, Galeria Luisa Strina, curator Pollyana Quintella, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2020 Luso Afro Brazil: Art, History and Memory, Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2019 Southern Geometries, from Mexico to Patagonia, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France
2016 The hand of the Brazilian people 1969/2016, MASP, São Paulo, Brazil
2012 4 Spontaneous Artists, Museu Afro-Brasil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2012-2013 Janet Costa "Look," Janet Coast Museum of Popular Art, Niterói, RJ, Brazil
2012 Stubbornness of Imagination: Ten Brazilian artists, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2012 Stubbornness of Imagination: Ten Brazilian artists, Centro Cultural Paco Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2012 Stories of Seeing: Show and Tell, Fondation Cartier pour l' Art Contemporain, Paris, France
2009 Art Fair Madrid, Pabellón de Cristal, Madrid, Spain
2007 Encounter Between Two Seas: Bienal São Paulo - Valencia, Convento del Carmen, Valencia, Spain
2006 Live Culture Live the Brazilian People, Museum Afro - Brazil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2002 Pop Brazil: folk art and folk art, Centro Cultural Banco do Brazil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2000 500 Shows the Rediscovery, Pavilion of the Biennale, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
1995 The Heirs of the Night: fragments of the imaginary black, Culture Center of Belo Horizonte, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
1994 Art and Religiosity Afro - Brazilian, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
1994 The Heirs of the Night: fragments of the imaginary black Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Public Collections:
Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Afro Brasil Museum, Sao Paulo | SP - Brazil
MAM Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro | RJ – Brazil
Cartier Foundation, Paris | France
Selected Publications:
2019 Géometries Sud, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France
2018 Brazilian outsider art: a contemporary survey, publisher WMF Martins Fontes, São Paulo, Brazil
2016 A mão do povo brasileiro 1969/2016, MASP, São Paulo, Brazil
2013 - Aurelino | paintings, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2012 - 2013 A Look Janet Costa, Costa Janet Museum, Niteroi, RJ, Brazil
2012 - Transfiguration of the Royal Museum Afro - Brazil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2012 Stubbornness of Imagination: Ten Brazilian artists, Martins Fontes, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2012 Histoires de Voir: Show and Tell, Fondation Cartier pour l' Art Contemporain , Paris, France
2007 Encounter Between Two Seas: Biennale São Paulo - Valencia, Convento del Carmen, Valencia, Spain
2006 Live Culture Live the Brazilian People, Museum Afro - Brazil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2002 POP BRAZIL: The art in popular and folk art, Centro Cultural Banco do Brazil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
2000 500 Shows the Rediscovery, Pavilion of the Biennale, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
1995 The Heirs of the Night: fragments of the imaginary black, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
1994 Art and african Brazilian religiosity, Publisher Brasiliana Frankfurt, Brazil
1988 Hand Afro - Brazilian: Meaning of Historical and Artistic Contribution, Emilio Odebrecht Foundation , São Paulo, SP, Brazil