Lygia Pape

Lygia Pape (Nova Friburgo RJ 1927 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 2004)

Lygia Pape was a Brazilian sculptor, printmaker, and filmmaker whose artistic trajectory was marked by experimentation and creative freedom. She studied with Fayga Ostrower at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro and, in the 1950s, became involved with Concrete Art. In 1957, after joining Grupo Frente, she became one of the signatories of the Neo-Concrete Manifesto, a movement seeking a more sensitive and subjective form of art. The following year, she created, together with the poet Reynaldo Jardim, Ballet Neoconcreto I, presented at Teatro Copacabana, and two years later participated in Konkrete Kunst, an international exhibition of concrete art in Zurich.

At the end of the 1950s, she began a trilogy of artist books: Livro da Criação, Livro da Arquitetura, and Livro do Tempo, which established her approach of integrating the spectator into the work. From the 1960s onward, she worked in cinema as a screenwriter, editor, and director, contributing to the visual programming of Cinema Novo films. During this period, she also produced wooden sculptures and released the Livro-Poema, a fusion of woodcut and concrete poetry.

In 1971, she directed the short film O Guarda-Chuva Vermelho, a tribute to Oswaldo Goeldi. In 1980, she moved to New York on a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. Her work is noted for constant reinvention, the fluid transition between media, and the active involvement of the public, dialoguing with artists such as Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark. After Oiticica's death, she collaborated with Luciano Figueiredo and Waly Salomão on the Projeto Hélio Oiticica, aimed at preserving his work.

In the 1990s, with support from the Vitae Foundation, she developed the project Tteias, exploring the relationship between light and movement. In 2004, the Cultural Association Projeto Lygia Pape was established, conceived by the artist herself and currently directed by her daughter, Paula Pape.

Critical Commentary

In the 1950s, Lygia Pape studied with Fayga Ostrower (1920-2001) at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro (MAM/RJ), where she came into contact with Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980), Aluísio Carvão (1920-2001), Décio Vieira (1922-1988), among others, and joined Grupo Frente in 1954. She focused on woodcut printmaking and, between 1955 and 1959, created Tecelares, a series of abstract-geometric works in which she employed highly simplified forms and explored the texture and natural grains of wood as inherent compositional elements.

In 1958, she conceived, with Reynaldo Jardim, Ballet Neoconcreto I, where the stage was filled with cylindrical and parallelepiped forms, with dancers moving inside them on a black stage. In 1959, she became one of the signatories of the Neo-Concrete Manifesto. That same year, she produced Livro da Criação, composed of 118 units in various shapes and colors, meant to be handled by the reader. The title alludes to the creation of the world and the participant's creative stance. During this period, audience participation became a central aspect of her work. In Ovo (1967), wooden cubes are wrapped in very thin colored paper or plastic, which must be torn by the viewers to experience the sensation of birth. In Divisor (1968), a crowd fills a 30 by 30-meter cloth, placing their heads through multiple openings.

She produced objects and installations marked by irony, dark humor, and political critique. In Caixa de Formigas (1967), she placed live leafcutter ants in a wooden container, walking over a surface inscribed with “greed or lust.” At the center, a spiral and a piece of raw meat drew the ants' attention. In Caixas de Baratas (1967), she arranged cockroaches in a translucent acrylic box with a mirror at the back, resembling a scientific collection. The initial reaction of the viewer is revulsion, as they see themselves reflected alongside the insects. Caixa Brasil (1968) contained the word “Brasil” in silver letters on the lid, with strands of hair from the three racial groups—indigenous, white, and black—inside.

In 1976, she held exhibitions at Galeria de Arte Global and MAM/RJ titled Eat Me: a gula ou a luxúria?, in which she explored the image of women as objects of consumption. She grouped objects such as nude calendars, hair, aphrodisiac lotions, lipsticks, apples, prosthetic breasts, and feminist texts in vitrines and paper bags, selling the bags at affordable prices as a critique of the art market. In 1979, in Ovos de Vento ou Ar de Pulmões - Windbow, she created a trench-like installation using plastic bags and rubber balls, producing effects of light, color, and transparency. For Pape, the work, made of fragile materials, was strong as an idea, serving as a tribute to the Sandinistas. Presented at the Hotel Meridien in Rio de Janeiro, it was titled “Gávea de Tocaia.” Pape’s social concerns are evident in works such as Narizes e Línguas (1995) and Não Pise na Grana (1996). In the first, she explores the dichotomy between what the eye sees or the nose smells and what the body feels. It references global campaigns against hunger. In 1999, she revisited the Manto Tupinambá, transforming it into an anthropophagic ball of feathers, from which human remains emerged, and in a photographic montage, suspended a massive cloud of red smoke over Rio de Janeiro, as if the Tupinambá were reclaiming their land. In 2002, she created the installation Carandiru, referencing the 1991 event, with a red waterfall whose base takes the form of the Manto Tupinambá, linking the image of prisoners with that of the decimated indigenous population.

According to English critic Guy Brett, the seed of creativity blossoms in Pape’s works through sensitivity and humor. They were not meant to be consumed hastily, without reflection; it is the manner in which they are experienced by the viewer that constitutes the work. The artist never adhered to the same media or processes; her practice is always innovative and addresses multiple concerns. In the 1950s, Ballet Neoconcreto enabled a pioneering experience: the body itself was used to move forms and colors through space. In Livro da Criação, handling and, above all, creativity were required to realize the work. In other projects, she sought to allow anyone to replicate the work at home, as in Roda dos Prazeres (1968), where the audience was offered liquids of various flavors associated with different colors.

Critiques

"Among the circulating artists, none is richer in ideas than Lygia Pape. In her, ideas are not concepts or prejudices, but rather fragmentations of sensations that carry Pape from one space to another event, and from there to a state where colors and spaces flicker and consume each other, oscillating between interior and exterior. Cubes and eggs delimit her areas, creating perspectives that intersect to marry one plane with another, emptiness with fullness, while spaces or instants of space emerge at a corner, by a street vendor who, with his whistle, summons beings who suddenly gather around him.
From the eggs of the wind arise walls that evoke a Sandinista guerrilla trench in action, bringing a contemporary touch to the state-structure, where everything returns to what it was not, and post- and pre-images restart the cycle of creativity—from the Livro da Criação to the Balé Neoconcreto, from the little bags of Objetos de Sedução to Eat Me, from the Roda dos Prazeres to Espaços Imantados, which warm in the improvisations of chance and poetry. Within this entire web, representing the artist in motion, it is the tiny particle, the vital breath, that unites everything—art and non-art, form and part, color and space—in a circuit that begins here and does not end there, yet always keeps a breach open, where ideas sprout and everything begins anew, from the vibrancy of sensations, the warmth of form, and the vitality by which life is adorned, with the continuation of things indicating that art and ideas never cease, propelled by Lygia Pape’s indomitable inspiration."
Mário Pedrosa
LYGIA Pape. Comentário Luís Pimentel, Lygia Pape, Mário Pedrosa. Rio de Janeiro: Funarte, 1983. 48p. il. (Arte brasileira contemporânea).

"Who is Lygia Pape? Is she the neoconcrete artist? The artist who breaks with neoconcretism and establishes a new discursive possibility between artist, work, and audience? The artist who turns to object-making? Lygia Pape is this multiple evasion: it is the desire to make time intervene in space (neoconcrete prints and sculptures/Livro da Criação); the desire to dismantle, questioning the traditional trajectory of the work (Divisor/Roda dos Prazeres/Objetos de Sedução); the acute awareness of political dimensions (Ovos ao Vento); the desire to make the plane dialogue with space (Olho do Guará/Cruzes de Latão e Borracha/Série de telas Sertão Carioca); the contemporary urge to provoke, through the irreverent humor of comics and precariousness, the aestheticism of form and the naivety of artists absorbed by market logic (Amazoninos).
Lygia Pape embodies, as an artist, this courageously mutable practice that resists capture by any singular meaning.
Her artistic identity is constituted by change and built through change; it is in process. She invents new forms for each new experience or situation. She executes a radical poetics, discovering in the limits of things (material and immaterial) their expressive force. Lygia Pape is pre-Socratic. She is Heraclitean. She is pure becoming."
Márcio Doctors
DOCTORS, Márcio. Lygia Pape. Galeria: Revista de Arte, São Paulo, n. 16, 1989, p. 137-138.

"In 1967 she presented her Caixas de Humor Negro, such as the Caixa de Formigas and Caixa de Baratas, at a time when such structures attracted many artists in Brazil. Lygia Pape organized, in a translucent acrylic box—like an entomologist’s treasure—a series of cockroaches in order, as if to suggest a scientific discourse, as if they were instrumentalized by reason. (...) The seemingly anarchic meaning of the Caixa de Baratas already contained a political strategy. During the dictatorship, museums, as official institutions, became small allegorical spaces and diagrams of the very power system, which in Brazil then meant the escalating repression of the 1964 dictatorship. Artists devised traumatic processes to expose the institutions of the authoritarian state, revealing this repressive or opaque arm over the culture of critical consciousness. In this strategy, the Caixa de Baratas belongs to the cycle of artist/institution confrontation alongside works like O Porco Empalhado (1967c) by Nelson Leirner, or Antonio Manuel’s performance at the 1970 Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna, when he inscribed his body as a work and, defying cultural authorities, appeared nude at the event. Dilemmas and strategies of resistance under a dictatorship. Abjection and scatology occupy the space of the utopian promises of Russian Constructivism or the Bauhaus, ideals renewed in Brazilian Concretism."
Paulo Herkenhoff
HERKENHOFF, Paulo. Lygia Pape: fragmentos. In: PAPE, Lygia. Lygia Pape. São Paulo: Galeria Camargo Vilaça, 1995.

"Considering printmaking as a form of knowledge, Lygia Pape uses it to resolve graphic issues linked to the understanding of space. In the years she participated in Grupo Frente and neoclassicism, she effectively problematized space, questioned through arts that included printmaking. Far from a passive vision, Lygia constructs forms that interact with surrounding space. In Tecelares, the geometric forms that repeat alternately establish a rhythm that continuously directs the viewer’s gaze into space. As the problem is spatial, printmaking also considers its spatial inscription; Tecelares belongs to the air, not the walls, for the transparency of the paper allows the forms to be seen on the reverse—not the backside, but the front of the same back. The quality of the paper, the porosity of the wood, the thickness of the cuts, all articulate in Lygia, who prevents chance. Mastery over materials and techniques equals mastery over form; for this reason, Lygia Pape chooses woodcut over metal, where acid is, as she sharply notes, a co-author. In this sense, the artist who incorporates the accidents of the process into the work is merely a spectator selecting, an approach which Lygia sees as a denial of artistic responsibility and a proposition of allusive work. Spatial questioning led Lygia to develop books: in Livro da Criação, a book-object that arms itself, she invades space; in Livro-Poema, made of woodcuts and concrete poems, the interrogated space is the book itself: on a double page, the poem on one side and the woodcut on the other form contiguous images, creating a single image that, of course, illustrates nothing."
Leon Kossovitch and Mayra Laudanna
KOSSOVITCH, Leon & LAUDANNA, Mayra. Gravura no Século XX. In: GRAVURA: arte brasileira do século XX. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural : Cosac & Naify, 2000. p. 20.

"Lygia Pape’s development within and beyond the neoconcrete movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s provides a rich example of this reorientation of European modernism under Brazilian conditions. Her particular playfulness and freedom were evident in the way she was willing, from the start, to experiment across a wide range of languages and formats—from ballet to the book! She floated above the boundaries of institutionalized disciplines, making her own recombinations. In her Balé Neoconcreto (1958), it seems the theatrical space was emptied of human figures, with dancers replaced by colored geometric solids. These, in turn, were invisibly moved by dancers hidden inside, creating a slow, linear choreography of advance-retreat, intersecting, separating, and merging. In other words, the conventions of ‘live art’ were employed to dramatize the dichotomy between geometry and the organic."
Guy Brett
BRETT, Guy. A lógica da teia. In: PAPE, Lygia. Gávea de Tocaia. São Paulo: Cosac & Naify, 2000. p. 306.

Testimonials

"There is nothing more sophisticated, intellectually speaking, than what is commonly called non-erudite culture. My closeness to popular expressions relates directly to my worldview as an artist. Regarding my personal work, I can be moved by popular inventions, finding them interesting and creative. Everything I observe can nourish me and even serve as material for a work or invention I might undertake—but not in the idealistic sense of assuming that art is something vague, simply beautiful. I believe it is more incisive; it is a language. It is my way of understanding the world. (...)

Many of the artists in the [neoconcrete] group created works where the viewer's participation was part of the expression of the piece. This concept has been difficult to assimilate in Europe and the United States. Just consider the Documenta in Kassel.

I produced some works of this type in 1968, but mine had a different character. When I made Ovo, a cube covered with a soft surface that people enter, break, and 'are born,' I was interested in the possibility of a work without an author. Divisor, a large surface of 20 x 30 m with slots where people place their heads, was also quite successful in this regard. What I wanted at that moment was a collective work, one that people could replicate without my presence. Ovo and Divisor are structures so simple that anyone can reproduce them. Ideologically, this kind of proposal was very generous—a form of public art in which people could participate. Today, these are called performances.

Nowadays, I no longer have works in which audience participation is crucial. The inventive aspects, the creation of new languages, the mixing of categories—these were highly productive as sources of energy for other potential works. They raise broad and important questions.

I find it very dangerous to classify artistic production into generations. Yet it is common to try to confine an artist to a certain period, almost freezing them there. That is not the case. An artist emerges at a certain moment, since everyone has their own moment of emergence, but the process can only truly be defined after the artist disappears. This process encompasses diverse moments where certain questions may seemingly vanish, only to reappear later. I find it impoverishing to classify an artist within a generation and to condition critical perception of their work to that framework. (...)

I work in a circular manner, moving from one work to another. This may seem unusual, but for me it is a form of meditation, one work informing and helping resolve the issues of another. Sometimes I even change techniques: from visual arts to cinema, or to writing. All of this is part of a whole and functions organically. (...)

I am intrinsically anarchist. This does not mean I am disorganized. But I have an intense desire not to respect rigid structures. I cannot tolerate power or hierarchies. This is why my classes are anti-classes. The learning process is ongoing and individual, as everyone has their own pace of growth. I try to convey a concept of freedom to my students. It leaves a strong impression. In drawing class, for instance, I often start working with newspapers. The student begins by treating a newspaper page as a drawing, sensing the gray tones, the stains, and intervening in the photographic images. In this way, they recreate the images and develop a new way of seeing things, learning to let go of the rigid distinction between what is art and what is not."
Lygia Pape
PAPE, Lygia. Lygia Pape. Interview by Lúcia Carneiro, Ileana Pradilla. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Aguilar, 1998. pp. 21-22, 44-46, 53, 74-75 (Palavra do artista).

"Contrary to what is often assumed, it is not indifferent in Concretism whether one makes a print, painting, or drawing. If the artist sets a graphic problem, they will execute it in print (...). Regarding the simple forms of concrete printmaking, I believe that in creating a work, one must always ask: is this necessary? Could it be achieved by simpler means? Hence, the austerity."
Lygia Pape
PAPE, Lygia. Debate on printmaking: Pape affirms, "Young artists must forge their own path." Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 15/12/1957. Quoted in GRAVURA: Brazilian Art of the 20th Century. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural : Cosac & Naify, 2000. p. 128.

Collections

Collection of the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ - Rio de Janeiro, RJ

Solo Exhibitions

1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Divisor, at MAM/RJ
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Ovo, at MAM/RJ
1968 - Vargem Grande RJ - Roda dos Prazeres, at the artist's studio
1971 - Vargem Grande RJ - O Homem e sua Bainha
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 40 Neoconcrete Prints, at Galeria Maison de France
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Facas de Luz, at Universidade Santa Úrsula
1976 - São Paulo SP - Eat Me: Gluttony or Lust?, at Escritório de Arte São Paulo
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Eat Me: Gluttony or Lust?, at MAM/RJ
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Poetic Spaces - Tteias, at EAV/Parque Lage
1980 - Vitória ES - Ovos ao Vento or Air of the Lung, at Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Olho do Guará, at Galeria do Centro Empresarial Rio
1984 - São Paulo SP - O Olho do Guará, at Arco Arte Contemporânea, Galeria Bruno Musatti
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Sculptures, at Artespaço Escritório de Arte
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Lygia Pape Neoconcreta, at Thomas Cohn Arte Contemporânea
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Amazoninos, at Thomas Cohn Arte Contemporânea
1991 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Tteia nº 7, at Galeria Ibeu Copacabana - Ibeu Award for Best Exhibition
1992 - Niterói RJ - Solo Exhibition, at Universidade Federal Fluminense, Documentation Center
1992 - São Paulo SP - Solo Exhibition, at Galeria Camargo Vilaça
1993 - Milan (Italy) - Incizione, at L´Originale Gallery
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Branco sobre Branco, at MNBA
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo Exhibition, at Centro de Artes Calouste Gulbenkian
1995 - São Paulo SP - Solo Exhibition, at Galeria Camargo Vilaça
1995 - São Paulo SP - Narizes e Línguas, at CCSP
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Garrafas e Espuma, at Jardim Botânico - Projeto Brahma Reciclarte
1996 - São Paulo SP - Solo Exhibition, at CCSP
1997 - Recife PE - Alva de Prata, at Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Instituto de Cultura
1998 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Solo Exhibition, at Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil
1999 - Porto (Portugal) - Solo Exhibition, at Galeria Canvas
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Printmaking, at Museus Castro Maya, Museu da Chácara do Céu
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Sedução II - Vai/Vem, at Paço Imperial
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Toys, at Casa Amarela
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo Exhibition, at Centro de Artes Hélio Oiticica
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Tteia 1/C, at Paço Imperial
2003 - São Paulo SP - Night and Day, at Galeria André Millan

Group Exhibitions

1953 - Petrópolis RJ - 1st National Exhibition of Abstract Art, Hotel Quitandinha
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Still Life Salon - Sul América Award
1953 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th Still Life Salon, Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro
1954 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Grupo Frente, Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1955 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd Grupo Frente, MAM/RJ
1955 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo International Biennial, Pavilhão das Nações
1955 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Salon of Modern Art, Galeria Prestes Maia
1956 - Resende RJ - 3rd Grupo Frente, Itatiaia Country Club
1956 - São Paulo SP - 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art, MAM/SP
1956 - Zürich (Switzerland) - Concrete Exhibition, Kunsthause
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art, MAM/RJ
1957 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 6th National Salon of Modern Art - Acquisition/Print Award
1957 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo International Biennial, Pavilhão Ciccilo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1958 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 7th National Salon of Modern Art, MAM/RJ - Jury Exemption Prize and Silver Medal
1959 - Leverkusen (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1959 - Munich (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe, Kunsthaus
1959 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Neo-Concrete Art Exhibition, MAM/RJ
1959 - Salvador BA - Neo-Concrete Art Exhibition, Galeria Belvedere da Sé
1959 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo International Biennial, Pavilhão Ciccilo Matarazzo Sobrinho
1959 - Vienna (Austria) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Hamburg (Germany) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Lisbon (Portugal) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Madrid (Spain) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Paris (France) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd Neo-Concrete Art Exhibition, Ministry of Education and Culture
1960 - São Paulo SP - Women's Contribution to the Visual Arts in Brazil, MAM/SP
1960 - Utrecht (Netherlands) - First Collective Exhibition of Brazilian Artists in Europe
1960 - Zürich (Switzerland) - Konkrete Kunst, Helmhaus
1961 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Formiplac Award, MAM/RJ
1961 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Neo-Concrete Art Exhibition, MAM/SP
1967 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - New Brazilian Objectivity, MAM/RJ
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Apocalipopótese, Pavilhão Japonês, Aterro do Flamengo
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte no Aterro: one month of public art, Aterro do Flamengo and Pavilhão Japonês
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Brazilian Artist and Mass Iconography, Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial
1968 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Artist and Mass Iconography, Esdi
1973 - São Paulo SP - Expo-Projeção 73, Espaço Grife
1975 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Experimental Super-8 Film, Audiovisual and Videotape Exhibition, Galeria Maison de France
1977 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Constructive Art Project: 1950-1962, Pinacoteca do Estado
1977 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Constructive Art Project: 1950-1962, MAM/RJ
1978 - São Paulo SP - The Object in Art: Brazil in the 1960s, MAB/Faap
1980 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Homage to Mário Pedrosa, Galeria Jean Boghici
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Contemporaneity: Homage to Mário Pedrosa, MAM/RJ
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - What House is this of Brazilian Art
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6th Xylography in the History of Brazilian Art, Casa Romário Martins
1984 - Curitiba PR - 6th City of Curitiba Printmaking Exhibition, Museu da Gravura
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st National Exhibition of Abstract Art - Hotel Quitandinha 1953, Galeria de Arte Banerj
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Xylography in the History of Brazilian Art, Funarte. Galeria Sérgio Milliet
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Grupo Frente: 1954-1956, Galeria de Arte Banerj
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Wood, Matter of Art, MAM/RJ
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Neo-Concretism 1959-1961, Galeria de Arte Banerj
1984 - Volta Redonda RJ - Grupo Frente 1954-1956
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte Construção: 21 Contemporary Artists, Galeria do Centro Empresarial Rio
1985 - São Paulo SP - 16th Panorama of Brazilian Contemporary Art, MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Trends in the Artist's Book in Brazil, CCSP
1986 - Niterói RJ - 1083º, Universidade Federal Fluminense. Documentation Center
1986 - Resende RJ - Grupo Frente 1954-1956
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th Carioca Art Salon, Estação Carioca do Metrô
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Some Women, Galeria de Arte Ipanema
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Geometric Abstraction: Concretism and Neo-Concretism, Fundação Nacional de Arte. Centro de Artes
1987 - São Paulo SP - Palavra Imágica, MAC/USP
1987 - São Paulo SP - 1st Geometric Abstraction: Concretism and Neo-Concretism, MAB/Faap
1989 - Stockholm (Sweden) - Art in Latin America: the Modern Era 1820-1980, Moderna Museet
1989 - London (UK) - Art in Latin America: the Modern Era 1820-1980, Hayward Gallery
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Small Greatness of the 1950s, Gabinete de Arte Cleide Wanderley
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Today, MAM/RJ
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th São Paulo International Biennial, Fundação Bienal
1990 - Brasília DF - Brasília Visual Arts Prize, MAB/DF
1990 - Curitiba PR - 9th City of Curitiba Printmaking Exhibition, Museu da Gravura
1990 - Stockholm (Sweden) - Art in Latin America: the Modern Era 1820-1980, Nationalmuseum and Moderna Museet
1990 - Madrid (Spain) - Art in Latin America: the Modern Era 1820-1980, Palacio de Velázquez
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Archaeos Projects, Fundição Progresso
1990 - São Paulo SP - Coherence – Transformation, Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1991 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Image over Image, Espaço Cultural Sérgio Porto
1991 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio de Janeiro 1959/1960: Neo-Concrete Experience, MAM/RJ
1991 - São Paulo SP - Constructivism: Poster Art 40/50/60, MAC/USP
1992 - Curitiba PR - 10th City of Curitiba Printmaking Exhibition / America Exhibition, Museu da Gravura
1992 - Niterói RJ - UFF Art Gallery: 10 Years, Universidade Federal Fluminense Art Gallery
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - On the Way to Niterói: João Sattamini Collection, Paço Imperial
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Contemporary Art, EAV/Parque Lage
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Sculpture 92: Seven Expressions, Espaço RB1
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Printmaking in Brazil: Proposal for Mapping, CCBB
1992 - Zürich (Switzerland) - Book of Time, Kunsthaus Zürich
1993 - Brasília DF - Again Paper, Museu Vivo da Memória Candanga
1993 - Curitiba PR - Contemporary Brazil, Galeria Casa da Imagem
1993 - Florence (Italy) - Brazil: Segni d'Art, Biblioteca Nationale Centrale di Firenze
1993 - Fortaleza CE - Ephemeral Sculptures, Parque do Socó
1993 - Fortaleza CE - Artist’s Book, Centro de Artes Visuais Raimundo Cela
1993 - João Pessoa PB - Xylography: from Cordel to Gallery, Fundação Espaço Cultural da Paraíba
1993 - Milan (Italy) - Brazil: Segni d'Arte, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense
1993 - São Paulo SP - The Presence of the Ready-Made: 80 Years, MAC/USP
1993 - Venice (Italy) - Brazil: Segni d'Arte, Fondazione Scientífica Querini Stampalia
1993 - Washington D.C. (USA) - Ultramodern: The Art of Contemporary Brazil, National Museum of Women in the Arts
1993 - Florence (Italy) - Brazil: Segni d'Arte, Querini Stampalia, Brazilian Studies Center
1993 - Milan (Italy) - Brazil: Segni d'Arte, Querini Stampalia, Biblioteca Nationale
1993 - Rome (Italy) - Brazil: Segni d'Arte, Querini Stampalia
1994 - Belo Horizonte MG - The Ephemeral in Brazilian Art: 1960s/1970s
1994 - Fortaleza CE - Artist’s Book, Centro de Artes Visuais Raimundo Cela
1994 - Niterói RJ - The Extension of Art, Universidade Federal Fluminense. Documentation Center
1994 - Penápolis SP - The Ephemeral in Brazilian Art: 1960s/1970s
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Commemorative Exhibition for 40 Years of Grupo Frente, Galeria Ibeu Copacabana
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Book-Object: The Frontier of Voids, CCBB
1994 - São Paulo SP - Brazil 20th Century Biennial, Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - The Ephemeral in Brazilian Art: 1960s/1970s, Itaú Cultural
1994 - São Paulo SP - Xylography: From Cordel to Gallery, Companhia do Metropolitano de São Paulo
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Libertines/Libertários
1995 - Santos SP - 5th Santos National Biennial, Centro Cultural Patrícia Galvão
1995 - São Paulo SP - Between Drawing and Sculpture, MAM/SP
1995 - São Paulo SP - Book-Object: The Frontier of Voids, MAM/SP
1996 - Belo Horizonte MG - Itinerant Impressions, Palácio das Artes
1996 - Brasília DF - The Ephemeral in Brazilian Art: 1960s/1970s, Itaú Galeria
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Trends in the MAC/USP Collection: Construction, Measure, and Proportion, CCBB
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Transparencies, MAM/RJ
1996 - São Paulo SP - Desexp(l)os(ign)ition, Casa das Rosas
1996 - São Paulo SP - Ex Libris/Home Page, Paço das Artes
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - 25th National Art Salon of Belo Horizonte
1997 - Curitiba PR - Contemporary Printmaking, Museu Metropolitano de Arte de Curitiba
1997 - São Paulo SP - Three-Dimensionality in 20th Century Brazilian Art, Itaú Cultural
1998 - Barcelona (Spain) - Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949-1979, Museu d'Art Contemporani
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Three-Dimensionality in 20th Century Brazilian Art
1998 - Brasília DF - Three-Dimensionality in 20th Century Brazilian Art, Itaú Galeria
1998 - Los Angeles (USA) - Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949-1979, The Museum of Contemporary Art
1998 - Niterói RJ - Biennial Mirror, MAC/Niterói
1998 - Penápolis SP - Three-Dimensionality in 20th Century Brazilian Art
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16th National Visual Arts Salon, MAM/RJ
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Poetics of Color, Centro Cultural Light
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Thirty Years After 1968, CCBB
1998 - São Paulo SP - 24th São Paulo International Biennial, Fundação Bienal
1998 - São Paulo SP - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, MAM/SP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Borders, Itaú Cultural
1998 - São Paulo SP - Theory of Values, MAM/SP
1998 - Vienna (Austria) - Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949-1979, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts
1998 - Barcelona (Spain) - Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949-1979, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo
1999 - Belém PA - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Rua Boaventura da Silva x Av. Doca de Souza Franco
1999 - Belo Horizonte MG - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Contorno x Av. Amazonas
1999 - Brasília DF - LHL: Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Caixa Econômica Federal Gallery
1999 - Campinas SP - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition
1999 - Campo Grande MS - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Afonso Pena x R. Treze de Maio
1999 - Cuiabá MT - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Fernando Correia da Costa, s/n
1999 - Jundiaí SP - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Nove de Julho, 1400
1999 - Manaus AM - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Paraíba x Rua Efigênio Sales
1999 - Osasco SP - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. dos Autonomistas, nº 2973
1999 - Porto (Portugal) - Circa 1968, Museu Serralves
1999 - Porto Alegre RS - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Goethe x Rua Mostardeiro and Rua Vinte e Quatro de Outubro x Rua Bordini
1999 - Recife PE - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition
1999 - Ribeirão Preto SP - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Presidente Vargas, 915
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Venceslau Brás x R. General Severiano; Praça da Bandeira - Radial Oeste, near Praça da Bandeira; Humaitá - Largo do Humaitá
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Constructive Art in Brazil: Adolpho Leirner Collection, MAM/RJ
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Random Field, Museu do Telephone
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Printmaking Exhibition. Contemporary Prints, Paço Imperial
1999 - Salvador BA - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Tancredo Neves, 805
1999 - Santo André SP - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, R. Dom Pedro II x R. Catequese
1999 - Santos SP - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition
1999 - São Paulo SP - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Cidade Jardim x Av. Brig. Faria Lima; Av. Brig. Faria Lima x Av. Rebouças; Av. Eng. Luís Carlos Berrini x Av. Águas Espraiadas; Rua Vergueiro x Av. Paulista; Av. Juscelino Kubitschek x Av. Brig. Faria Lima; Av. Paulista x Al. Campinas
1999 - São Paulo SP - Everyday/Art. Technique – Art Machines, Itaú Cultural
1999 - São Vicente SP - 3rd Eletromidia de Arte: Virtual Exhibition, Av. Presidente Wilson x Av. Antônio Emmerich
1999 - Tokyo (Japan) - Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949-1979, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 20th Century: Art from Brazil, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - When Brazil Was Modern: Visual Arts in Rio de Janeiro 1905–1960, at Paço Imperial
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Situations: Brazilian Art of the 1970s, at Fundação Casa França-Brasil
2000 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Expanded Territory, at Sesc Pompéia
2000 - São Paulo SP - Conceptual Art and Conceptualisms: 1970s in the MAC/USP Collection, at Galeria de Arte do Sesi
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500: Rediscovery Exhibition. Contemporary Art, at Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo SP - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - New York (USA) - Brazil: Body and Soul, at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
2001 - Oxford (UK) - Experiment Experiência: Art in Brazil 1958–2000, at Museum of Modern Art
2001 - Penápolis SP - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Porto Alegre RS - Liba and Rubem Knijnik Collection: Contemporary Brazilian Art, at MARGS
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Image of Sound by Antônio Carlos Jobim, at Paço Imperial
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Trajectory: The Artist's Experiment, Path, and Process, at Funarte
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection, at Paço Imperial
2001 - São Paulo SP - The 1970s. Trajectories, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - São Paulo SP - Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection, at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Lygia Pape and Nicola Tyson, at Galeria Camargo Vilaça
2001 - São Paulo SP - Rotativa Phase 1, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Washington D.C. (USA) - Virgin Territory: Women, Gender, and History in Contemporary Brazilian Art, at National Museum of Women in the Arts
2001 - Brasília DF - Investigations. Brazilian Printmaking, at Itaú Cultural
2002 - Brasília DF - Fragments to Your Magnet, at Espaço Cultural Contemporâneo Venâncio
2002 - Fortaleza CE - Ceará Rediscovering Brazil, at Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura
2002 - Liverpool (UK) - Pot
2002 - London (UK) - Experiences: Dialogues between Works of Brazilian Artists from the 1960s to 2002, at New Art Gallery Walsall
2002 - Passo Fundo RS - Prints: Paulo Dalacorte Collection, at Museu de Artes Visuais Ruth Schneider
2002 - Porto Alegre RS - Prints: Paulo Dalacorte Collection, at Museu do Trabalho
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Archipelagos: The Plural Universe of MAM, at MAM/RJ
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952–2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Parallels: Brazilian Art of the Second Half of the 20th Century in Context, Cisneros Collection, at MAM/RJ
2002 - São Paulo SP - Form and Technical Image in Rio de Janeiro Art: 1950–1975, at Paço das Artes
2002 - São Paulo SP - Metrópolis Collection of Contemporary Art, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2002 - São Paulo SP - Geometric and Kinetic Art, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
2002 - São Paulo SP - Nefelibatas, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Open Opera: Celebration, at Casa das Rosas
2002 - São Paulo SP - Paralela, at warehouse on Avenida Matarazzo, 530
2002 - São Paulo SP - Parallels: Brazilian Art of the Second Half of the 20th Century in Context, Cisneros Collection, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Pot, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2003 - Campos dos Goytacazes RJ - Planar-Spatial Poem, at Sesc
2003 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Cuasi Corpus: Concrete and Neo-Concrete Art from Brazil: A Selection from the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art and Adolpho Leirner Collection, at Museo Rufino Tamayo
2003 - Nova Friburgo RJ - Planar-Spatial Poem, at Galeria Sesc Nova Friburgo
2003 - Porto Alegre RS - 4th Mercosur Visual Arts Biennial, at Cais do Porto
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fiat Lux: Light in Art, at Centro Cultural da Justiça Federal
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Unpublished Multiples, at H.A.P Gallery
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Order x Freedom, at MAM/RJ
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Project in Black and White, at Silvia Cintra Galeria de Arte
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Subversion of the Means, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Sculptors – Sculptures, at Pnakotheke
2003 - Venice (Italy) - 50th Venice Biennale, at Arsenale and Giardini della Biennale
2003 - Vila Velha ES - The Salt of the Earth, at Museu Vale do Rio Doce
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 30 Artists, at Mercedes Viegas Escritório de Arte
2004 - São Paulo SP - The Price of Seduction: From Corset to Silicone, at Itaú Cultural

Posthumous Exhibitions

2004 - São Paulo SP - Reincarnated Painting, at Paço das Artes
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Everything is Brazil, at Paço Imperial
2004 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art in the Municipal Collection, at CCSP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Everything is Brazil, at Itaú Cultural
2005 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Soto: The Construction of Immateriality, at CCBB
2005 - Petrópolis RJ - Abstract Express, at Museu Imperial