“Untitled”

Carlos Fajardo creates mainly installations, and his work also moves between painting and sculpture, constantly intertwining the two. He participated in the 9th, 16th, 19th and 25th editions of the São Paulo Biennial. He was also present at the 45th and 48th editions of the Venice Biennale, the 9th Cuenca Biennial and the 1st Mercosul Biennial. He has held group and solo exhibitions at several institutions around the world, and his work is part of collections such as those of the MAM – Museum of Modern Art and MAC – Museum of Contemporary Art, both in São Paulo; and other public and private collections.

The Rex Group, a landmark in Brazilian art, was the starting point for Carlos Fajardo's entry into the art scene of the 1960s. Having studied with Regina Silveira, he joined the group initially formed by Wesley Duke Lee (who was also his teacher), Nelson Leirner and Geraldo de Barros, which aimed to criticize the state of Brazilian art at that time. In an ironic and humorous way, the members of the group, which also included José Resende and Frederico Nasser, created the newspaper "Rex Time" and developed an exhibition space, the Rex Gallery and Sons, to discuss art as a commodity, the dominant critique and the place of the spectator. Later, at a time of political crisis in the country, he founded the Escola Brasil, together with José Resende and Luiz Paulo Baravelli, with the proposal of teaching art in an "anti-academic" way, "abolishing the fragmentation of artistic knowledge". Fajardo continues to train other artists and teaches at ECA USP – School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo.

According to Ivo Mesquita, “the rigor of his work is enriched by the ambiguity of his sensitivity that moves between the masculine and the feminine (…) rather than affirming the tradition of Modernity (…) it leaves open the possibility of displacements to other territories”. This is how, in both painting and sculpture, Carlos Fajardo’s work constructs veils, gaps, and limits. From his early work, in which he produced mainly two-dimensional works, to his most recent work, in which the questions of plane and medium are contaminated, the artist has always thought about the surface, be it of the support, the material, or even the meaning.