Iran do Espírito Santo

Iran do Espírito Santo’s multidisciplinary practice involves sculpture, drawing and installations. While investigating the space between the concrete and the abstract, he questions the limits of visual representation and the perceptive habits typical of the contemporary optical regime, which tends to privilege the spectacular over the commonplace. His procedure always aims at an architectural project and its realization, with the prefabricated aspect of many of his objects remitting to the compositional style of industrial design. The distillation of forms to their basic elements seems to return the objects to a neutral state, where common things are decomposed into lines and planes in space.

Among the artist’s recent solo exhibitions are Trilha, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brasil (2024);Janela Reflexiva, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brasil (2022); Iran do Espírito Santo e Fred Sandback, Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2018); Playground, Art Omi Sculpture Park, Ghent, Belgium (2016); Playground, Public Art Fund, New York, USA (2013) and Aside, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2013).The artist has also participated in the group exhibitions 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); A máquina do mundo: Arte e indústria no Brasil 1901 – 2021, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale that Society Has the Capacity to Destroy: Mare Nostrum, Complesso della Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Penitenti, Venice, Italy (2019); Passado/futuro/presente: arte contemporânea brasileira no acervo do MAM, MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2019); Edifice, Complex, Visionary, Structure, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA (2018).

The artist has works in important public collections, such as The Bohen Foundation, New York, USA; Centro Cultural Arte Contemporâneo, Mexico D.C., Mexico; CIFO – Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, USA; EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil; MAC USP – Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil MACBA – Museu d ́Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; MAMAM – Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães, Recife, Brazil; MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo, Rome, Italy; MCA – The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA; MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Estados Unidos; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; SFMOMA – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; TBA21 – Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Vienna, Austria.