Celso Renato * 1919 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-† 1992 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Celso Renato’s work consists of a rigorous and indirect dialogue between painting and material. His practice feeds on abstract expressionism, the assimilation of geometrical attributes and the conflicting dialogue between the painting and its respective physical support; primarily being discarded wood and remnants from buildings. His work refers to the basis of constructivism, passing through informal to geometric abstraction, materializing into a unique form marked by expressive and austere characters, as his use of white, black, and red colors. 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 (1919 – 1992) lived and worked in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

His work was most recently included in Paper trails, d'Ouwe Kerke, Retranchement, Netherlands (2023); Veredas, Mendes Wood DM São Paulo, Brazil (2018); Building Material: Process And Form In Brazilian Art, Hauser and Wirth, Los Angeles (2017); Makers, David Zwirner, New York, USA (2017). Selected solo exhibitions include Celso Renato, Mendes Wood DM & Michael Werner Gallery, New York, USA (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, Brazil (1982).