Matias Mesquita
Matias Mesquita (1976). Visual artist since 2009. Graduated in Industrial Design / Visual Communication from PUC-Rio. He attended the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, between 2009 and 2010. He was co-founder of Elefante Centro Cultural, an important autonomous space for contemporary art in Brasília, which ended its activities in 2019.
With an interest in urban life and a background in industrial design and visual communications, Matias Mesquita makes art about cities, their residents, and the socioeconomic and political forces that affect how urban areas develop. After building a career in animation and video production, Mesquita turned to art making full time in 2011. He concentrates on painting and sculpture, using such non-traditional supports as slabs of cement, drywall, and other construction materials.
Mesquita paints fragmentary, naturalistic images of dramatic sunsets, queuing workers, and isolated urban residents going about their days. These scenes float in the center or at the edges of his compositions, appearing delicate and fleeting against their industrial backdrops. The artist also cofounded Elefante Centro Cultural, an independent contemporary art space in Brazil.
Among the main exhibitions is the recent solo show "Concrete, Liquid and Gaseous Worlds", at Casa Albuquerque (Brasília); and the group exhibitions "Conversations: Resistance and Convergence", at the Casa das Onze Janelas Cultural Center (Belém/Pará) and "TRIANGULAR: Art of this Century", at the Casa da Cultura da América Latina (Brasília).
His production is in the collection of great Brazilian collectors, such as Roberto Klabin and Sérgio Carvalho. As well as important museums in Brazil: the National Museum of Fine Arts (Rio de Janeiro); O MAR - Museu de Arte do Rio (Rio de Janeiro); the National Museum of the Republic (Brasília); and Casa das Onze Janelas Cultural Space (Belém/Pará). Among the awards received throughout his career are ITAÚ CULTURAL - Arte Como Respiro (2020); PIPA Online Award nomination (2016); and IBRAM Feira Art-Rio 2011 Award (2011).
