Mauro Restiffe

For the last few decades, Mauro Restiffe has worked with an archive of photographs he took with the same analog camera, largely made up of black and white images. Though he states he is not interested in specific themes, the artist repeatedly photographs common scenes and spaces, stripped of any monumentality. These are images of architecture, urban scenes, landscapes and moments of intimacy. Even when photographing epic themes, such as important political episodes, his gaze turns to what remains at the margin of these events. An intimate and contemplative dimension of his work arises in the snapshots Restiffe takes of people. The typical grain of the analog format – a gesture refusing the disposable character of digital images – gives his photographs an atmospheric noise that situates them between remembrance and narrative 

Among his recent solo exhibitions are Santo Sospir: Mauro Restiffe/Jean Cocteau, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco (2023); Amanhã de manhã, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, Portugal (2022); Laço rastro traço | Rastro traço laço, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Mauro Restiffe: History as Landscape, OGR Torino, Turin, Italy (2019); São Paulo, Fora de Alcance, Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo, Brazil (2018) and Álbum, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2017). He also participated in the group shows Chosen Memories:Contemporary Art From Latin America – Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift and Beyond, MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S.A. (2023); Histórias Brasileiras, MASP – Museu de Arte Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil (2022); On the line: documents of risk and faith, CAC – Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, U.S.A. (2022); Faz escuro mas eu canto, 34th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil (2021); O Canto do Bode, Casa da Cultura de Comporta, Comporta, Portugal (2021); Nothing Stable Under Heaven, SFMOMA, San Francisco, U.S.A. (2018);12th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2018).

Restiffe’s work has been included in many important public collections, such as the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Colección Cisneros, Caracas, Venezuela; Fondazione Fotografia Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena, Italy; Fundación Arco, Madrid, Spain; Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisboa, Portugal; Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brasil; Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; MAC USP – Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil; MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; MON – Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brasil; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil; SFMOMA – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA TBA21 – Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria and Tate Modern, London, UK.