m a t e u v e l a s c o
New York, 1980
m a t e u v e l a s c o
New York, 1980
under construction
Born in 1981 in Rio de Janeiro, city where he lives and works, Bruno Miguel graduated from the UFRJ School of Fine Arts with a degree in Visual Arts, with special attention on painting. Furthermore, as complementary studies, he attended several courses at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage through the "Aprofundamento" program and, since then, he has taught at the same School. Since 2007, he has participated in individual and group exhibitions in Brazil and in countries such as the USA, Germany, Portugal, Turkey, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina and Chile. In addition to being invited to several international residencies, his works is part of important institutional and private collections, in Brazil and abroad. He was also the curator of individual and group exhibitions in London, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
When investigating the complexity of objects on an everyday scale, Bruno Miguel's research work always finds in domesticity the necessary means for the construction of image. Whether through criticism of consumption as a structural element and founder of socio-political dynamics via collage, or in the three-dimensionalization of pictorial practice in approximation with Rosalind Kraus's expanded field of the arts, Bruno's work frequently appropriates common, ordinary and recognizable objects as support or even as a basis, parameter and form for composition. In his work, human relationships resonate in their greatest intimacy - the private environments and the objects that composes them are clear testimonies of particular conflicts and concrete means of his identity construction.
works
"CRYSTAL CABINET" SERIES
In the "Crystal Cabinet" series, Bruno uses traditional crockery as a starting point for the composition of elements that, reconfigured through juxtapositions mediated by color, draw new silhouettes based on family pieces and ones acquired at auctions and antiques stores. He therefore raises totems of domesticity - that can be read through Freud's critical social anthropology - composed by a tribe memory, identifiable and relatable, as an indication of ancestry.
Série: A Cristaleira
2015 - 2016
Resina de poliéster, tinta spray,vidro e cristal
Medidas variáveis
"TAPESTRY" SERIES
In Darcy Ribeiro, the formation and construction of Brazil as a Nation-State starts from the colonial desire and need for a unification based on the acculturation, largely forced, of the existing cultures, whether natives, or imported due to slavery or immigration, for the common good and the strengthening of the State whose sovereignty was to be defended. One of the survival methods of peripheral and excluded singularities is the maintenance of their ancestral devotion, especially that of Afro-Amerindian origin, in this case, illustrated by their syncretic phalanx from Rio de Janeiro - Umbanda.
Using these elements, Bruno Miguel circumvents and subverts the projects of exclusion from official Brazil in the name of an originally Brazilian "encantaria". Through intervention in classical european tapestries (Gobeleins and Aubussons), the artist celebrates the sophistication of popular knowledge as an important path for fighting structural racism, colonialism and projects of physical, spiritual, philosophical and artistic whitening of a part of the population through the overlap between two times - the worn and shabby one and the other with exuberant colors and pertinent to the tropical light.
"THOSE PEOPLE IN THE DINING ROOM" SERIES
Still based on the utilitarian elements that composes the everyday domestic scene, the series "These people in the dining room" materializes the encounter between common and determining elements of different genres of painting as a visual arts discipline: objects commonly used for Still Life assemblies and topographic, natural elements that organically composes the landscape. Therefore, it can be infeered that time (as gone by) and space (which can be occupied) provide conditions for the existence of these constructed singularities, reinforced by their display which, despite the necessary collective pact, guarantees their individuality.
Série: Essas pessoas na sala de jantar
2015 - 2016
spray, porcelana fria, espuma de poliuretano, arame, resina acrílica e papel machê sobre porcelana comprada em leilão de antiguidades
Medidas variáveis
"THE VOID THAT CONSUMES US" SERIES
Through the three-dimensionalization of the pictorial processes in approximation with the expanded field and the tensioning of the limits of the disciplinary specialization of the arts, Bruno appropriates packaging from products already used to compose masses of paint that fill the space previously dedicated to the liquefaction and pasteurization of nature, through its reduction and concentration - determining factors in its industrialization process, which also includes its storage and accommodation. It alludes, therefore, to the fact that the representation of time, regardless of the support of expression, is directly linked to its artificial construction through the determination of its validity period.
"AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL" SERIES
Using the juxtaposition and collage of personal objects and graphic materials such as sticker album covers, cultural references from the 1980s and 1990s, and also copies of canonical works from art history, the artist reflects on the construction process of the contradictions that form modernity, through the emptying of meaning by the merely aesthetic appropriation experienced by Pop Art in the North American post-war period. In this process, Bruno seeks to establish generational relationships that, based on a memorial and imagery accumulation, come closer to the spectator and, thus, subject of the artwork.
"AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL" SERIES
Using the juxtaposition and collage of personal objects and graphic materials such as sticker album covers, cultural references from the 1980s and 1990s, and also copies of canonical works from art history, the artist reflects on the construction process of the contradictions that form modernity, through the emptying of meaning by the merely aesthetic appropriation experienced by Pop Art in the North American post-war period. In this process, Bruno seeks to establish generational relationships that, based on a memorial and imagery accumulation, come closer to the spectator and, thus, subject of the artwork.
"PSEUDONYMS" SERIES
The “Pseudonyms” series deals with the imagery of an external world without resorting to its simples representation, questioning the visualities not investigated by the current artistic system, due to a lack of interest caused by the present validation system. Thus, the artist uses elements that are not external to the world of arts, but are often disregarded as legitimate compositional elements, due to the constant search for sophistication and intellectual refinement. Therefore, his painting remains a field for developing new hypotheses, without the intention of confirming tradition, but rather updating the problems it addresses.
