Nelson Felix

Nelson Felix (Rio de Janeiro, 1954) is a renowned Brazilian visual artist known for his innovative and experimental approach in contemporary art.

Education and Early Career
Nelson Felix began his artistic training in 1971 with Ivan Serpa. Later, he studied architecture at Santa Úrsula University, where he took classes with the renowned artist Lygia Pape, graduating in 1977. His first solo exhibition took place in 1980 at the Jean Boghici Gallery in Rio de Janeiro, featuring a series of drawings made with watercolor and stamps.

Artistic Development
In the early 1980s, Felix focused predominantly on drawing. As the decade progressed, he began exploring sculpture, using noble materials such as metal and Carrara marble, as well as soft rubber, solid or powdered graphite, and other materials. His works, often organized into long-term series like "Série Gênesis" (1988-), address geometric and organic elements, investigating tensions and challenging distinctions between nature and culture, body and transcendence, matter and presence.

Methods and Themes
Felix uses geographic coordinates and cosmic positions to define the placement of his works, as seen in projects like "Cruz na América" (1984-2004) and "Série Árabe" (2001). This method guides his artistic decisions, as in "Concerto para Encanto e Anel" (2005-2009) and "4 Cantos e Verso" (2008-2013), where global space is treated as a central poetic element.

Exhibitions and Recognition
The artist has participated in various group exhibitions and shows in Brazil and abroad, including the XXIII São Paulo Biennial (1996) and the III and IV editions of Arte/Cidade (1997 and 2002). Felix has held solo exhibitions at renowned institutions such as MASP (1993), Museu da Vale (2006), and Instituto Tomie Ohtake (2013). His works are part of significant public and private collections, including the Gilberto Chateaubriand and João Sattamini collections, as well as the MAM-Rio and MAM-SP collections.

Awards and Publications
Felix was awarded scholarships from the French Ministry of Culture (1989) and the Vitae Foundation (1991), and was an artist-in-residence at Curtin University in Australia (1994). He has published several books with texts by renowned critics such as Rodrigo Naves, Glória Ferreira, and Ronaldo Brito. Notable publications include "Trilogias" (2005), "Camiri" (2006), and "Concerto para Encanto e Anel" (2011). In 2015, Pinacoteca Publishing released "O Oco," with texts by Rodrigo Naves and Taísa Palhares.

Recent Exhibitions
In 2013, after weeks of installation, Felix opened the exhibitions "Verso (meu ouro, deixo aqui)" at Instituto Tomie Ohtake and "Verso" at Galeria Millan. These exhibitions form the second part of a work started in Portugal with the exhibition "4 Cantos" (2008), establishing a dialogue between different spaces and complementing each other.

Sources:
Text: Blombô research and curation, with the support of artificial intelligence for content writing and structuring.