Henrique Oliveira, Parietal Passage 2016, MARTA Herford Museum, Herford, Germany, tree barks, plywood, pigments and other material, Courtesy of the artist
Born Ourinhos, Brazil (1973), lives and works between London, UK and Sao Paulo, Brazil
Island 2024
plywood, rebar, pvc and timber construction, screws, staples
4m x 13m
Courtesy of the artist
Commissioned by Lagos Biennial 2024
Artist’s statement
Moving through the territories of sculpture, painting and architecture, Henrique Oliveira’s immersive environments and hybrid spaces bring back the original nature of materials to re-define their ordinary use. A wide range of references can be noticed in his works. From science-fiction and medical text to Art History and psychoanalysis, these subjects converge into a personal visual language that merges biomorphic images and urban materiality. Perception of space, surface and consistency are often destabilised in his creations, weakening categories otherwise taken as secure means of organising our understanding of everyday-life. In some of his constructions, specially in those made into the architecture, the public is attracted into situations of discomfort while his sculptural interventions act to blur the borders between sensuality and abjection. Raising existential and political issues implicit in the notions of death and decay, many times these works play the role of a contemporary mirror, reflecting the position of human beings in the world and their relationship with nature and the environment.
Henrique Oliveira’s work is included in Gregarious architectures.
