José Damasceno

Brazilian, b. 1968

José Damasceno’s sculptural vocabulary incorporates spatial circumstances, elements of project and scale, using materials such as chess pieces, doormats, chalk and modeling clay. The artist explores the friction of senses between idea, matter and form. Displacement and strangeness are also requested in the construction of the space, empowered by the presence of improbable objects and occurrences. In his series ‘Organograms’, Damasceno maps nonlinear time flows by the ramification of the words “yesterday”, “tomorrow” and “today”. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1968, where he currently lives and works, Damasceno started his carreer as a sculptor in the early 90’s and began to exhibit regularly in Brazil and abroad after his participation in Panorama da Arte Brasileira, a biennial exhibition organized by MAM-SP (Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo) in 1995. The artist had an important solo show, Coordenadas y Apariciones, at the Reina Sofia Museum, Spain, in 2008, one year after representing Brazil for the second time in the 2007 Venice Biennial (the first being on in 2005). Damasceno also participated in the 2006 Sidney Biennial, 2003 Mercosul Biennial and 2002 São Paulo Biennial. His works are in important collections such as Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation – CIFO, USA; Instituto Inhotim, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil; The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA, EUA, among others.

Sources:
Photo: http://artehall.com.br/artista-plastico-jose-damasceno/
Text: http://www.galeriamillan.com.br/en/artista/jose-damasceno