Neves Torres
1932, Conselheiro Pena – MG | 2023, Vila Velha – ES, Brazil
The artistic journey of Neves Torres is a testament to the power of memory and imagination. Born in 1932 in Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, and passing away in 2023 in Vila Velha, Espírito Santo, Torres discovered painting later in life, during his retirement. Through his art, he found a way to revisit and preserve the rural world that shaped his life, now brought vividly to life on his canvases.
In his work, Torres recreates the countryside with simple strokes and soft colors, evoking an idealized and tranquil past. He brings together fragments of his rural life—mountains, workers, crops, birds, and machinery—and places them in compositions where each element feels isolated yet harmoniously connected.
However, Neves Torres’s art extends beyond mere reproductions of landscapes or daily scenes. His work carries a lyricism that transcends reality. Animals, plants, and structures are transformed through imaginative arrangements that challenge conventional perspectives. Birds and trees sometimes merge, as if belonging to an enchanted realm where the real blends seamlessly with the imagined. These works suggest a coexistence of distinct times and places, as though the artist were weaving a unique space of memories and inventions.
Although deeply inspired by his rural roots, Neves Torres also experienced the contrasts between the countryside and the city. His move to Espírito Santo and life in Serra, closer to urban concrete, marked his physical distance from the rural world. Yet it is precisely this distance that gives his work its strength: by reimagining the countryside as a lost paradise, Torres transforms his memories into a utopian vision, where the relationship between humans and nature maintains a harmony that may never have fully existed.
Individual Exhibitions:
2023 Neves Torres, Galeria Estação, São Paulo – SP l Brazil
2012 Neves Torres | Paintings, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Group Exhibitions:
2024 Metamorphoses e Distances, Galeria Estação, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
2023 “Reverses and Transverses: artists beyond boundaries (and friends) at the biennials”, Galeria Estação, São Paulo – SP, Brazil
2022 Entre a Estrela e a Serpente, Galeria Leme, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
2021 15° Bienal Naïf do Brasil, Sesc Piracicaba, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
2017 Manuel Graciano and Neves Torres, Galeria Estação, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
2016 Bienal Naïf do Brasil, Sesc Piracicaba, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
2014 Mostra de Artes Plásticas de Neves Torres e Antônio Torres, Galeria de Arte da Assembleia de Minas Gerais, Minas Gerais - BH, Brazil
2014 Quase figura, quase forma, Galeria Estação, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
2012 Histórias de Ver, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, França
2010 Bienal Naïf do Brasil, Sesc Piracicaba, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
2008 Bienal Naïf do Brasil, Sesc Piracicaba, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
Public Collections:
Serviço Social do Comércio - Sesc, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Cartier Foundation, Paris, France
Selected Publications:
2024 Metamorfoses e Distâncias, Galeria Estação, São Paulo - SP, Brasil
2023 REVERSOS & TRANSVERSOS: artistas fora do eixo (e amigos) nas bienais, Galeria Estação, São Paulo – SP, Brasil
2018 Arte popular brasileira: olhares contemporâneos, Editora WMF Martins Fontes, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
2017 Manuel Graciano e Neves Torres, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
2016 Bienal Naïf do Brasil, Sesc Piracicaba, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
2014 Almost a figure, almost a shape, Galeria Estação, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
2012 Neves Torres | Paintings, Galeria Estação, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
2012 Histoires de Voir: Show and Tell, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France
2010 Bienal Naïf do Brasil, Sesc Piracicaba, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
2008 Bienal Naïf do Brasil, Sesc Piracicaba, São Paulo - SP, Brazil
