Wagner Pinto 05.09.1978
Born in Porto Alegre, Brazil
Lives and work in São Paulo and Porto Alegre
A frenetic spirituality, paced by the rhythm of drums and agitated by collective trances emanates from Wagner Pinto compositions, fields saturated with symbols fromAfro-Brazilian religions and mythologies from the forest. Icons from
Umbanda, Candomblé and Santo Daime coexist in a psychedelic profusion of colors. Diagonal lines confer a fast
rhythm to this ecumenic visual percussion, and warm colors encircle shells, crosses from several traditions, crowns,
animal skins, laces, eyes, drums, axes, pyramids, wings, suns, bead necklaces, flags, and swords.Despite this
figurative load, Wagner Pinto feels aligned to abstractionist movements that employed colors and shapes to reach
a non-visible world of subtle energies. Recently, the artist started to include objects in his works, conferring them
a status of talismans: a necklace that flows from the canvas, fringes framing the drawing. Dealing with abstract
shapes that became unequivocal religious symbols, Wagner Pinto mixes the universe of religion with graphical
elements he inherited from Pop Art, such as the dark contours and hachures, as well as with icons used in comics
to suggest movement, such as the short lines that follow his figures to indicate a wind or fire trail.
Wagner Pinto is an alumnus of “University Self-Appointed” – irony of a group of artists from the south of Brazil
whomock the importance our era grant to the academy – and is a PhD in finding his own references in graphic arts,
street art,in the calligraphic drawings by Cy Twombly, and in the pulsating excess of Beatriz Milhazes and Franz
Ackerman: aesthetic syncretism.For the last 5 years Wagner Pinto has shown his works in exhibitions such as
Miração (São Paulo, 2008), Floating (London, Bracelona and Milan, 2009), Brazil Illustrated (London, 2009) and
“Do Outro Lado (Tokyo – 2010), besides being a member of the collective Upgrade do Macaco (Monkey´s upgrade).
Paula Braga
That which belongs to you
Composed of a frenetic scramble of colours and shapes and in the context of the reborn Brazilian contemporary
painting, the artwork of Rio Grande do Sul-born artist Wagner Pinto (1978) presents issues that blend the anima
resulting from his spirituality and artistic reflections based on the perception that both share a feeling of rapture.
These moments of deep concentration interspersed with periods of extreme lightness, ecstasy and simplicity
illustrate the artist’s movements during the planning, development and conclusion of his pieces.His artistic
process embraces countless experiences and practical-theoretical studies into the abstract as a process – relative
to that which arises as incorporeal – and the abstract as result – relative to how the material content is organized
in the chosen means of support. One can observe this technical-symbolic disposition on his large scale canvasses
or smaller, more detailed drawings.Amidst the set of elements that form his paintings, one can easily get lost in
a maze of colourful patterns and find oneself on firm lines, at times delicate, at times contained with right-angles
stemming from references to the design. This time dilution while observing the work gives the spectator the sensation
of having on his hands a pipette with the capacity to hold an ocean of fluid things.With a conscious and attentive eye,
we note how the work tells us secrets to dissect our own layers and thereby discover what the set of works says
about the artist and his artistic and personal quests. However, it is only by opening up to the work that we notice
that it initially speaks quietly, whispering into our ears but, as we look more and more, everything is spoken out loud.
Nicole Candian
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Selected Exhibits
Miração – Solo Exhibit
Gallery Rojo Artspace
São Paulo – Brazil – September 2008
ROJO OCHO – collective Exhibit
Gallery Rojo Artspace
São Paulo – Brazil – August 2009
ROJO OCHO – Collective Exhibit
Gallery Rojo Artspace
Barcelona – Spain – September 2009
Floating – Solo Exhibit
Gallery Concrete Hermit
London – UK – June 2009
Floating – Solo Exhibit
Gallery Rojo Artspacce
Barcelona – Spain – June 2009
Floating – Solo Exhibit
Gallery Kalpany
Milano – Italy – July 2009
Brazil Illustrated – Collective Exhibit
Gallery 32
London – UK – September 2009
Grafias – From Paper to Pixel – Collective Exhibit
Memorial da América Latina
São Paulo – Brazil – December 2009
Pick Me Up – Contemporary Art Fair
Sumerset House – Gallery Concrete Hermit
London – UK – April 2010
SP ART – Contemporary Art Fair
Zipper Galeria – Bienal Pavilion
São Paulo – Brazil – May 2010
Do Outro Lado – collective Exhibit
Espaço Cultural Manabu Mabe
Tokyo – Japan – September 2010 |
