“Support”

Edgard de Souza's body of work includes sculptures, objects, photographs, drawings and paintings, making him one of the most important artists of his generation. His notable exhibitions include the 24th São Paulo Biennial, the retrospective at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and the solo exhibition at the Museu de Arte da Pampulha in Belo Horizonte. His work is part of the collections of the Inhotim Institute and the MAM – Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, among others.

During his formative years, Edgard de Souza studied with Nelson Leirner, which contributed to his approach to conceptual art in the 1980s. He is primarily interested in issues related to the body and its representation. His sculptures frequently feature the body sculpted in bronze or wood, in figurative works or transfigurations, such as headless torsos joined together. Thus, various issues of human corporeality permeate the artist's production, resulting in works that consider self-portraits and organicity, and in which body parts, secretions, hair, and skin can be observed.

For critic Carlos Basualdo, “Edgard de Souza seems to be trying to extract, through the plastic exercise that constitutes the creation of these sculptures, the qualities of the body from its material base. But corporality, as a virtual mold of the possible permutations of the body, does not allow itself to be docilely separated from its usual container.”