Aurelino dos Santos

Brazilian outsider artist and painter Aurelino dos Santos, composes dynamic landscapes, seen from above and from the side at the same time, with strong colors and a mix of several different references, passing through phases of Baroque, Concretism and Neo-Concretism. While he works primarily in paint, Santos has also worked in tapestry and other textile arts. Geometrization is a primary element of Santos’ work, representing an idealized architectural format containing planes, forms, and color.

Over seventy years old, dos Santos, lives in a small house in the vicinity of Ondina, a Salvador neighborhood, and produces art on a compulsive basis. Illiterate and struggling with mental illness, he is often seen walking alone, talking to himself, and collecting miscellaneous materials that become molds for the initial strokes of his work. Everything in the works of Aurelino dos Santos comes down to geometry. The organization of these forms within his pictures—which, in fact, he never keeps —provokes deep questioning, as it is disorganization that seems to dominate his mind. 

Courtesy of Galeria Estação