Véio [Cícero Alves dos Santos]

1948, Nossa Senhora da Glória | SE - Brazil 

Cícero Alves dos Santos (“Véio”) takes up a unique position within the Brazilian art environment.
His works reveal dimensions that are significantly different from what we call ‘popular art’. His sculptures combine aspects of the popular tradition (sculptures in wood, use of the figures suggested by tree trunks and branches, and the use of rudimentary tools) with intense colours- much closer to industrial than to the delicate shades of nature. This stridence, of a somewhat pop nature, is intensified by a formidable imagination, which makes us see hybrid figures in his wood works, figures that blend the characteristics of the animals we know with those of the androids and transformers present in films and cartoons. On the other hand, just with one penknife, Cícero sculpts forms that are minute in size, but bare an enigmatic appearance, bringing back a force once reduced by scale. Men and women climb and go down mountains for no apparent reason; animals straddle each other, and women carry animal body parts on their heads. In these small sculptures, there is a more realistic aspect present in the carving of the shapes of people and animals. However, as yet we do not know the real meaning of his behaviour.

Cícero Alves dos Santos lives in the vicinity of Nossa Senhora da Glória, an important city in the backlands of the state of Sergipe, with some 50 thousand inhabitants. The city public market is very important to the state and attracts people from far afield to trade chickens, asses, pigs and also electronic equipment of all kinds, as well as lots of imported bric-à-brac from China, or maybe from Paraguay.
Coexistence with so ambiguous and so dynamic an environment has further triggered the talent of this rare sertanejo (resident of the backlands of the Brazilian Northeast), who has made the preservation of the memories of his people into the very reason of his existence. Memory is not nostalgia. For this reason, to affirm the entirety of an art originating from a rural world that is steadily disappearing, Cícero had to become the creator of an artistic category that did not exist. This one.

Rodrigo Naves

Solo Exhibition:

2021 Veio, Galeria de Arte Cícero Alves dos Santos no Sesc Santos, Santos, SP, Brazil

2018 Véio - the imagination of wood, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2017 Suddenly into the World, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2017 Suddenly into the World, Gustavo Rebello Art, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2016 Véio, SEEDS Gallery, London, UK

2015 Ramifications, SESC Santo Amaro, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2015 Becoming Marni, parallel to the 56º Biennale of Veneza, Abadia of São Gregório, Venice, Italy

2014 Cicero Alves dos Santos - Véios | Sculptures Galeria Estacao, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2010 Véio | Sculptures, MAP – Museum of Popular Art, Diadema, SP, Brazil

2006 Chipped Nation: Véio’s art and metaphor, National Centre of Folklore and Popular Culture, Edison Carneiro Museum, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2003 The things we got, Cultural Area of Legislative Assembly, Aracajú, SE, Brazil

1999 The art and the knowledge, Cultural Area of Legislative Assembly, Aracajú, SE, Brazil

1991 Northeast, Cultural Centre Tancredo Neves, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

1986 Véio and Sergipe, Natal Convention Centre, Natal, RN, Brazil

Collective Exhibitions:

2021 They Were Already Here, Galeria Base, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2021 Citizens – Created by Guillermo Kuitca, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Milan, Italy

2021 1981/2021: Contemporary Brazilian Art in the Andrea and José Olympio Pereira Collection, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center (CCBB), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2020 Highlight, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio MAM, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2019 Art Naif: No Museum Less, Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2019 Animal, Galeria Marcelo Guarnieri, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2019 Quimera, Galeria do Lago / Museu da República, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2017 Ways to See Brazil: Itaú Cultural 30 Years, Oca, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2017 Bestiary, Centro Cultura São Paulo (CCSP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2016 The Many and the One: Brazilian Contemporary Art, Tomie Ohtake Institute, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2016 Between looks: poetics of the Brazilian soul, Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2015 A particular collection - Contemporary art at Pinacoteca collection, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2015 10th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

2014 Frestas Art Trienal Sesc Sorocaba, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil

2014 Armadillo: Soccer, Adversity and the Culture of the Caatinga, Museu de Arte do Rio – Mar,Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2014 Almost a figure, almost a shape, Estação Art Gallery, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2014 Vivid Memories Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, França

2013 Crossed worlds: Art and Popular Imaginery, MAM, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2012 Stories of Seeing, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France

2012 Stubbornness of Imagination - Ten Brazilian Artists, Paco Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2012 Stubbornness of Imagination - Ten Brazilian Artist, Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2010 Brazilian Art beyond the system, Estação Arte Gallery, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2009 Imaginary Voices, National Centre of Folklore and Popular Culture - Edison Carneiro Museum, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2006/2007 Live Culture, Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2001 All Together, Gallery Ox Foot, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Public Collections: 

Fondation Cartier pour lart contemporain, Paris, France

Pavilion of Brazilian Cultures, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

MAR - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

MAM - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

AfroBrasil Museum, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

Acervo Sesc de Arte, São Paulo, Brazil

Selected Publications:

2020 Realce, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio MAM, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

2019 "Trees" Fondation Cartier pour l'art Comtemporain, EBS, Verona, Italy

2018 Arte Popular Brasileira: olhares contemporâneos], WMF Martins Fontes, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2018 VÉIO, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2017 Catalog of the exhibition "VÉIO - Suddenly into the world", Lis Gráfica, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2015 Mensagem de uma nova América, Fundação Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

2014 Cícero Alves dos Santos [Veio], WMF Martins Fontes, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

2010 Catalog of the exhibition "Véio | Esculturas”, Lis Gráfica, São Paulo, SP, Brazil