Waltercio Caldas

Waltercio Caldas, 1946, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
His works goes the opposite way in the spectacular and noisy world we live in. Allying a fine formal intelligence with provocative and sometimes apparently well humored games, Waltercio Caldas generates subtle questions for each viewer, teaching us to see beyond everyday habits. The artist had classes with Ivan Serpa at the Museum of Modern Art back in the 1960’s. In the 1970’s he edited a magazine called Malasartes and taught arts and visual perception at the Villa Lobos Institute. He started out with exhibitions in 1973. In the same decade he put up solo exhibitions at the main museums of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. He is nowadays considered one of the best internationally renowned Brazilian artists having held exhibitions in many countries around the world: Kanaal Art Foundation, Kortrijk, Belgium, 1991; Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, Holland, 1992 and Documenta 9 of Kassel, Germany, 1992; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland, 1993. He participated in the ‘Latin American artists of the twentieth century’ Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, 1993. He was invited to the 1983, 1987 e 1996 editions of the Sao Paulo Biannual. He represented Brazil at the 1997 Venice Biannual. His works can be found in the collections of the main museums in the world such as the MoMA or yet the Neue Galerie (Kassel) as well as Brazilian museums such as the Museum of Modern Art both in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. His sculptures for public spaces can be seen in Leirfjord (Norway), Paseo de las Americas in Punta del Este (Uruguay) or yet at the Beira Mar Avenue in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). His production is looked into in many books such as Aparelhos [Devices], with an essay by Ronaldo Brito (1976), and Waltercio Caldas, with text by Paulo Sergio Duarte, edited by Cosac Naify (2001). Waltercio is also author of books such as Manual da Ciência Popular [Popular Science Manual] (1982), Velásquez (1996) and Notas ( ) etc (2006). He also directed the video Rio, 1996.
In 2007, invited by Robert Storr, 52nd Venice Biannual chief curator, Waltercio specially created an environment named Half Mirror Shar, installed at the Italian Pavilion. In 2008 the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal and the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, presented two important exhibitions of the artist. In 2009-2010 the Museu da Vale presented Salas e abismos, individual exhibition composed of 9 installations, which catalogue was released in 2010 by Cosac Naify.