Press Release

Hélio Oiticica was a groundbreaking visual artist and theorist whose diverse practice spanned sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, and performance. His expansive body of work laid the foundations for participatory art, offering radical insights into abstraction through the lens of social, political, and economic conditions in Latin America and beyond. As a central figure in Brazil’s Neoconcrete movement and a co-founder of the Tropicália movement, Oiticica’s innovative approach emphasized the importance of spatial awareness and embodied interaction. At the center of the exhibition at Dia Beacon, Grande Núcleo (Grand Nucleus) (1960–63) stands out as one of Oiticica’s most engaging environments. Breaking with the two-dimensional boundaries of earlier series like Metaesquemas or Monocromáticos of the 1950s, Grande Núcleo was created as a complex structure of rectangular panels, painted in a vibrant spectrum from bright yellow to deep orange, and arranged in a dynamic grid of varying angles and heights. Here, the viewer’s corporeal presence, movement, and perception of time and space become integral to the work, actively shaping the relational dynamics within its environment.

Hélio Oiticica is curated by Humberto Moro, deputy director of program, and Ella den Elzen, curatorial assistant.

All exhibitions at Dia are made possible by the Economou Exhibition Fund.

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Installation Views

Hélio Oiticica, Untitled (from the series Relevos Espaciais [Spatial Reliefs]) (1959/91). © César and Claudio Oiticica, Projeto Hélio Oiticica. Photo: On White Wall.
Hélio Oiticica, Metaesquema (Meta-Scheme) (1958), and Painting 9 (1959). © César and Claudio Oiticica, Projeto Hélio Oiticica. Photo: On White Wall.
Hélio Oiticica, Untitled (from the series Relevos Espaciais [Spatial Reliefs]) (1959/91). © César and Claudio Oiticica, Projeto Hélio Oiticica. Photo: On White Wall.
Hélio Oiticica, Untitled (from the series Relevos Espaciais [Spatial Reliefs]) (1959/91). © César and Claudio Oiticica, Projeto Hélio Oiticica. Photo: On White Wall.
About the Artist

Hélio Oiticica was an important figure of the Neo-Concrete (1959–1961) art movement in Brazil. Neo-Concretists called for artworks to be like living organisms, engaging in spatial relationships with the viewers and thereby rejecting a rationalist approach that emphasised pure forms of representation. Despite the short span of the art movement, it informed the artist’s progression towards an artistic style that was less formalistic and more interactive, and left a lasting impact on later works in which the participation of the viewers remained a recurring theme.

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Also Exhibiting at DIA Beacon

About the Gallery

DIA Beacon is a renowned contemporary art museum situated in Beacon, New York, on the banks of the Hudson River. Housed in a repurposed 1929 Nabisco box printing factory, its expansive galleries and minimalist architecture make it a destination for lovers of postwar art and industrial design.

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Opening hours
January–March
Friday–Monday 11 am–4 pm

April–October
Thursday–Monday 11 am–6 pm

November–December
Thursday–Monday 11 am–4 pm
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