Celso Renato b. 1919, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; d. 1992 in Belo Horizonte

Celso Renato’s work consists of a rigorous and indirect dialogue between painting and material. While his practice feeds on abstract expressionism, it is later also marked by the assimilation of geometric attributes and the conflicting confabulation between the painting and its respective physical support, in his case consisting mainly of discarded wood from buildings.   

In this sense, he refers to the fundamentals of constructivism, passing through informal and geometric abstraction to materialize in a unique form, marked by severe and austere strokes, and also through the choice of the colors white, black, and red. The result is a vibrant trace of the planes that delineate and embody a pictorial exercise woven into its own physical and aesthetic boundaries, bringing together a survey of nature, sculpture, and collage.   

Celso Renato (b. 1919, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; d. 1992, Belo Horizonte) lived and worked in Minas Gerais.   

His work was most recently included in Paper trails, d’Ouwe Kerk, Retrenchement (2023); Veredas, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, (2018); Building Material: Process and Form in Brazilian Art, Hauser and Wirth, Los Angeles (2017); Makers, David Zwirner, New York (2017). Selected solo exhibitions include Celso Renato, Mendes Wood DM and Michael Werner Gallery, New York (2017); Celso Renato, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2015); Celso Renato, Itaú Galeria, Belo Horizonte (1990); Pace Arte Galeria, Belo Horizonte (1988); Retrospectiva, Museu Mineiro, Belo Horizonte (1985); Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (1982).