Albano Afonso
São Paulo, Brazil, 1964.
Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.
In his photographs, installations, projections and objects, Albano Afonso explores Light, the intangible element that makes the vision of the world possible. Afonso investigates the anatomy of light: its intensity or softness, its capacity to illuminate and darken, its sources, its symbolic and utilitarian uses and its beauty. In addition to light, it is time and, consequently, movement, the other elements from which he constructs his story. In the series "Self-portrait as Light", he also explores his own identity reflected in windows and mirrors with the camera's flash on, effectively replacing his head with an impressive explosion of pure light. Also in his recent mobile sculptures of bronze pieces, the self-portrait and time are the motifs of his interest.
Albano Afonso is also an active figure in the cultural scene of Sao Paulo, together with his wife the artist Sandra Cinto directs the Atelier Fidalga, a space for workshops and artist residencies that has become one of the most active places for meeting and thinking about contemporary art in Latin America.
Albano Afonso's work is represented in the collections of the 21c Museum Foundation's. Louisville. Kentucky, USA; CAB. Art Center, Brussels, Belgium; Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rio de Janeiro; Fundación ARCO Collection, Spain; Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation, Vigo, Spain; Museo de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil and the University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art, England, among others.