Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1977.
Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Represented by A Gentil Carioca.
PIPA 2010 nominee.
Contente studied Painting at the Fine Arts School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro from 1999-2005. In 2002, he became interested in urban art and started creating urban interventions around the city. In his works, the artist combines his studies at the School of Fine Arts with his passion for comic books and graffiti.
Website: http://www.carloscontente.com.br/en/.
Video produced by Matrioska Filmes exclusively for PIPA 2010:
Contente worked as an art educator and published comic books. Once he discovered the stencil, he began painting self-portraits in the streets. During his time at university, the artist worked with repetitions of a self-portrait on canvas, which he tried to reduce until the portrait looked like a logo. By reducing the painting and escaping the edges of the canvas, Contente would fragment the composition, producing a more urban, street-like work.
By playfully repeating these faces, they slowly became they starting point for the invention of characters and stories.
In 2005, he held the solo exhibition “Contente tende a infinito” at the Paço Imperial of Rio de Janeiro. He was a winner at the La Paz Art Biennial in 2005. In 2006, he had the solo exhibitions “Contente tende a infinito” at A Gentil Carioca in Rio de Janeiro and “Tende a infinito dois” at Gallery Luisa Strina in São Paulo.
In 2007, the artist returned to Paço Imperial in 2007 with the solo exhibition “Auto retratos também”. In the same year, he did an urban intervention in Bangkok; the artist painted an 80 meters-tall wall during 3 days in a suburb, and later produced graffiti in the Bed Supper Club.
In 2008, he participated in the ARCO art fair in Madrid with a solo project. In the same year, together with four friends, he showcased the exhibition “Zoation Painting” at the National Art Museum in La Paz, Bolivia. At the end of the year, he participated in a residency at Darling Foundry in Montreal, Canada. In February 2009, Contente had a showing of cutouts of drawings in a shop window in the same city.
Also in 2009, the artist held a solo project with A Gentil Carioca at ARCO art fair in Madrid called “Náusea” whilst he was participating in the group exhibition “Nova Arte Nova” at the Cultural Centre of the Bank of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro and in São Paulo. In the same year, Contente had a solo exhibition, “Compradores de Mundo”, at A Gentil Carioca in July, and in October at the La Paz Biennial.
In 2010, the artist had a solo project at Zona Maco fair in Mexico: an installation with drawings on Brazilian vinyl records. He participated in Fugue Urbaine, a festival of urban interventions in Montreal, and also in the group exhibition “Like tears in the rain,” curated by Ana Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, at Palácio das Artes, in Porto, Portugal.
Contente enjoys working directly on the walls of exhibition spaces. The artist began using the self-portrait “Contente” in multiples and for strange characters that make up absurd fictions, often combining text and image. The self-portrait is intended to merge image and word, occupying space like a page of comics. The artist is interested in the invasive nature of the stencil on the wall and the implementation of incisive humour.
“The almost maniac work of Contente multiplication in inside and outside venues; the nonsense and perverse humor of the elaborated stories; the strong desire for communication, as stated by the artist himself: all these are elements that grant to Carlos Contente’s work a quality that ironically challenges the most canonical parameters for a work of art. Already circulating through legitimating art spaces, his drawings seem to reveal the critical regard of the author on institutionalized values and moral and artistic standards, as if they, indeed, were in fact quite crazy.” – Cristina Salgado.
Education
1999-2005
-Painting at the College of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Solo Exhibitions
2013
-“Contente, sigo com fé e na humildade, linhas & hematomas contam as minhas histórias (Contented, I keep going, humble and faithful; lines and bruises tell my stories)”, Gallery Emma Thomas, São Paulo, Brazil.
2012
-“O Mundo (The World)”, Gallery Bendana I Pinel, Paris, France.
-“Traços & Tarsilões”, gallery A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2011
-“Infinite jungle of individual repetition”, Gallery Christinger de Mayo, Zurich, Switzerland.
2009
-“Compradores de Mundo (World Buyers)”, gallery A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2007
-“Contente:auto-retratos também (Contente: Self-Portraits Too)”, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2006
-“Contente tende a infinito (Contente Tends to Infinity)”, Gallery Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil.
-“Contente tende a infinito (Contente Tends to Infinity)”, gallery A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Group Exhibitions
2014
-“Compulsão Narrativa (Narrative Compulsion)”, Sesc Vila Mariana, São Paulo, Brazil.
-“Coop Riot”, 8Salon, Hamburg, Germany.
2013
-“Convite à viagem (Invitation to Travel)”, Rumos Itaú Cultural, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2012
-“A volta ao dia em oitenta mundos (Around the Day in Eighty Worlds)”, Rumos Itaú Cultural, Cultural Centre Otto Marques, Goiânia, Brazil.
-“Convite à viagem (Invitation to Travel)”, Rumos, Institute Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil.
2011
-“Brazilian Papers”, Bendana-Pinel Gallery, Paris, France.
2010
-“Converging Trajectories”, Modified Arts, Phoenix, USA.
-“Like tears in rain”, Fábrica de Novos Talentos, Palácio das Artes, Porto, Portugal.
-“Fugue Urbaine”, Quartiér Ephemére, Montreal, Canada.
2009
-SIART Biennial, La Paz, Bolivia.
2008
-“El Papel del Artista (The Artist’s Role)”, Doméstico IV, Madrid, Spain.
-“I/legítimo_ I/llegitimate”, Paço das Artes, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
-“Nova Arte Nova (New-New Art)”, Cultural Centre Bank of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brazil.
-“Zoation Painting, la pintura de Broma (The Mocking Painting)”, National Museum of Art, La Paz, Bolivia.
-“Contemporary Art and Heritage”, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2007
-Bangkok International Art Festival, Thailand.
-“THE IMAGE OF THE SOUND OF SAMBA”, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-“New Acquisitions of the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection”, Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2006
-“O que é normal? (What’s Normal?)”, Contemporary Cultural Centre, Brasília, Brazil.
-Arte Pará, Belém do Pará, Brasil.
-“Arquivo Gera (General Archive)”, Cultural Centre Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-“Portuñol (PortuSpanish)”, Centre for Brazilian Studies, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
-“Além dos limites (Beyond the Limits)”, Funarte, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2005
-SIART Biennial, La Paz, Bolivia.
-“Conexão Contemporânea (Contemporary Connections)”, Funarte, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-“Contente tende a infinito” in 20 anos de Paço Imperial (“Contente Tends to Infinity” in 20 years of the Imperial Palace), Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2004
-“AttacK+” street art festival, Rio de Janeiro , Brazil..
Awards & Sponsorships
2010
-Residency at the Etching studio of the Iberê Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
2009
-Residency for the Americas, Quartier Ephémère, Darling Foundry, Montreal, Canada.
Collections
-Gilberto Chateaubriand, Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-Museum of Art of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-Museum Artur Bispo do Rosário, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-Fabio Szwarcwald, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-Isabela Prata, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-José Olympio Pereira, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-Miguel Chaia, São Paulo, Brazil.
-Luis Augusto Teixeira de Melo, Brazil.
-Fernando Abdalla, São Paulo, Brazil.
-Felipe Mattar, São Paulo, Brazil.
-Maria Baró, São Paulo, Brazil.
-Paulo Galvão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-Ana Stewart, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-Collection Madeira, Lisbon, Portugal.
-Leif Djurhuus, Denmark.
-Wendy Stark, USA.
-Julio Verme, Peru.
-Dany Wohlgroth, Zürich, Switzerland.
-Célia Birbragher, Colombia.
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