Iole Antunes de Freitas (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, 1945) is a sculptor, printmaker, and multimedia artist whose work is marked by a constant exploration of new ways to represent the body and space, sometimes treating them as independent elements in dialogue and at other times merging them into a unified artistic expression.
At the age of six, Iole moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she became acquainted with avant-garde art through contemporary dance. In 1964, she began studying design at the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial (Esdi) and continued until 1965. In 1970, she moved to Milan, where she worked in Olivetti's Corporate Image Studio under the direction of architect Hans Von Klier. This experience in Milan, then one of Europe’s artistic hubs, was fundamental to her entry into the visual arts.
In this environment of artistic innovation, Iole began her career. Her background in dance heavily influenced her early work, with the body as the main subject of exploration. In Super-8 photographs and films, she captured gestures and movements reflected on various surfaces, such as glass and mirrors, examining the fragmented relationship between body and space. In her Spectro photographic series (1972), she recorded shadows of her body reflected on walls, while Glass pieces, life slices (1975) assembled photos of her body parts amid shards of glass.
In the 1980s, Iole moved into three-dimensional work, creating reliefs and sculptures that expanded her study of body and space, now focusing on constructed forms. She experimented with materials like wire, fabric, and metal screens. Her Aramões series (1984) used wire and tubes to create structures where fragmentation takes on a new dimension. In 1986, she received a Fulbright-Capes grant to research at MoMA in New York, and upon her return to Brazil, she directed the Instituto Nacional de Artes Plásticas at Funarte.
In the 1990s, Iole’s sculptures began to occupy space in a more architectural manner, adapting to the environments in which they were installed. Works created for the Capela do Morumbi and the Galpão Embra demonstrate her ability to engage with architectural elements. In 1996, she expanded her use of metal screens directly in the exhibition space, and in 1997, she held a retrospective at MAM-SP and Paço Imperial.
Seeking new possibilities for her large-scale sculptures, Iole began working with translucent polycarbonate plates structured by stainless steel tubes, creating pieces with more fluid, sinuous forms. In 2010, she installed a work at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, where polycarbonate sheets cross the museum's inner courtyard, creating a unique visual dynamic that interacts with the architecture. According to Iole, this work “traverses the space, filling it with new curves and lines. The incidence of light creates new environments that offer multiple aesthetic and spatial possibilities, engaging the viewer.”
Iole de Freitas's work is recognized for its seamless integration of object and space and for her continual innovation, establishing her as one of the leading figures in contemporary Brazilian sculpture.
