In this world, each day stranger, Jarbas Lopes retains an amateur spirit, and even more: an amorous spirit. Much is said of art and life; sometimes it would be better to think of art and love. It is love that transforms, like art, the multiple relations between beings and things. Jarbas Lopes weaves, also literally, new relations between so many things. He embraces many adventures in his adventure. It’s an action impregnated with the popular universe, on many fronts. He lives utopia fully, in the imagination and in several realities, parallel and convergent. Jarbas Lopes thinks the future today*. Fernanda Gomes.

Jarbas Lopes (Nova Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1964) lives and works in Maricá, no Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Graduated in Sculpture in the Escola de Belas Artes da Universidade Federal of Rio de Janeiro.

His multifaceted body of work uses several media in sculpture, installation, drawing, photography, performance and public art projects. The performative and interactive dimension of his work, emphasizes the idea of dislocation and journey through collaboration projects in or works that require the spectator’s participation. The artist frequently uses remains from everyday and ephemeral materials, reconfigured by hand as way of resistance to mass production forms and processes. These objects usually combine a sculptural character with the possibility of a practical use, retaining the function that appeals to the participation of the viewer, towards the dissolution of the border between art and life, object and spectator, questioning as well the limits of authorship.

Having begun exhibiting in the 1990’s, the following solo shows are, among others, highlighted: Ciclovíarea, at Museo Nacional de Belas Artes, Santiago, Chile (2010);Com Piada, at Baginski, Galeria/ Projectos (2009); Estação Cicloviaérea, Centro Cultural de São Paulo, Brazil (2007); Cicloviaérea, Museum of Art, Phoenix, USA (2007). Among others, the following group exhibitions are highlighted Good Luck (…), CRAC Alsace, curated by Filipa Oliveira (2015), The Lyon Biennale (2011); Look.look.again, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, USA,Dezenhos: A-Z, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Museu da Cidade, Lisbon (2009); Bienal de Gwangju, Coreia do Sul (2008); XXVII Bienal de São Paulo (2006); Octava Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba (2003); Panorama da Arte Basileira, MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (2002), e MAM, Sao Paulo (2001).

The work of Jarbas Lopes is represented in international collections such as the MOMA Collection, New York, Bronx Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Henry Moore Foundation, London, Arizona State University Museum, USA, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, USA, Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Colecção Chateaubriand – MAM, Rio de Janeiro, Fundación ARCO, Madrid, Spain, Colecção Teixeira de Freitas, Zabludowicz Collection London, among others.