Recognised widely throughout Brazil, Carlito Carvalhosa emerged in the Brazilian art scene in the 1980s as a member of the São Paulo based collective Grupo Casa 7, alongside Rodrigo Andrade, Fabio Miguez, Nuno Ramos, and Paulo Monteiro during this period of time, he produced large paintings with an emphasis on the pictorial gesture.
Read MoreIn 1989, Carvalhosa took part in the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and lived in Cologne, Germany until 1992. Carvalhosa uses diverse mediums and found objects—including electric lights, fabric, wax, and mirrors—to explore architectural space and the nature of materials. He began his career creating abstract paintings that blended painterly gestures with an emphasis on materiality, and continued to explore his fascination with materials with work in sculpture, applying the Egyptian lost-wax method and working with porcelain.
According to Portuguese curator Marta Mestre, what interests the artist is 'the relationship between space and the act of building. Mobilised by the artist, the building is a process of reordering the world ahead, support is chaos and thus differentiating activity in the face of nature.' Furthermore, Mestre emphasises that Carvalhosa 'runs through his work a thought of sculpture as construction, adding gesture and minus the void.'
Carvalhosa's more recent work has involved architectural interventions and interactive installations, his best-known piece being Sum of Days (2011), a monumental site-specific installation for the MoMA's atrium. Hanging a white, translucent material from the ceiling and a system of microphones that recorded and replayed the accumulation of each day's ambient noise, he placed viewers in an experience of total spatial and sonic immersion. His current work deals with site-specific installations that define the limits of surrounding architecture, suspending spatial references and allowing for total immersion employing elements like fabric, mirrors and lights. In 2013, Carvalhosa installed Sala de espera (Waiting room) at MAC-USP, throughout the space twenty-four wooden street posts are suspended in the exhibition space in conjunction with the architecture.
He featured in the 18th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (1985); the Havana Biennial, in Cuba (1986 and 2012); and the Mercosul Biennial, in Porto Alegre, Brazil (2001 and 2009). Individual exhibitions include: Precaução de Contato (Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil, 2014); Sala de espera (Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, 2013); and Sum of Days (MoMA, New York, USA, 2011).
Carlito Carvalhosa (b. 1961, São Paulo, Brazil) lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. Carvalhosa studied Architecture and Urbanism at the Universidade de São Paulo (FAU/USP) from 1980–1984.
Text courtesy Galeria Nara Roesler.
