Cildo Meireles is recognized as one of the main instigators of conceptual art, now that the movement has been recognized for having points of origin across the globe. But the label is inadequate to describe the combination of abstract thinking and direct physical experience in his extraordinarily diverse body of work. A deep interest in the relationship between the sensory and the cerebral, the body and the mind, is now seen as one of the defining characteristics of the post-war Brazilian avant-garde, from which Meireles emerged with his first works in the late 1960s.
Read MoreIn 2019, Sesc Pompeia (São Paulo, Brazil) dedicated its largest retrospective in Latin America to the artist. Meireles' work has been exhibited all over the world, including the 37th, 50th, 51st and 53rd Venice Biennale; the 16th, 20th, 24th and 29th São Paulo Biennials; the 6th and 8th Istanbul Biennials; the 1st and 6th Mercosul Biennials; the Lofoten International Art Festival, Norway; the 2004 Liverpool Biennale and the Kassel Documenta in 1992 and 2002.
In 2013-2014 a retrospective was organized and presented in museums: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Serralves Foundation Contemporary Art Museum, Porto, Portugal and HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy. In 2009, Tate Modern presented a retrospective exhibition of his work.
Among the public collections that hold his work are: MOMA - The Museum of Modern Art, USA; Tate Collection, England; SMAK Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, Belgium; CACI Center for Contemporary Art Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Museum of Contemporary Art of Niterói, Brazil; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan; Serralves Foundation, Portugal; MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain; CGAC Galician Center for Contemporary Art, Spain; Daros Latinamerica, Switzerland; LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA; Blanton Museum of Art, USA.
Text courtesy Luisa Strina.
![Esfera invisível [Invisible Sphere] by Cildo Meireles contemporary artwork sculpture](https://files.ocula.com/anzax/09/0967f2f8-da81-4d9a-a821-cfca70c0a576_600_442.jpg)
