João Lelo

João Lelo is an artist from Rio de Janeiro, currently living and working in São Paulo. He began his career as an artist through graffiti and urban art. Today, he dedicates himself to various types of media such as paintings, installations, and objects. His work is highly characteristic due to the use of geometric lines. Self-taught, he is always experimenting with new ways to create his works.

I moved from Rio de Janeiro, where I am originally from, to São Paulo in 2011 after participating in an important exhibition, Transfer, held at the Pavilion of Brazilian Cultures. Since moving to São Paulo, this is my fourth studio. I share the studio space with other artists who have various skills, not limited to painting. These are people who also have great skill in manual work, such as sculpture and woodworking.

The idea is for this space to be a place for creation in various media, where one can experiment and collaborate freely. Here, we can explore different forms of artistic expression, from paintings and sculptures to complex objects and installations, fostering an environment of innovation and knowledge exchange.

I am essentially a self-taught artist. Despite studying graphic design, I do not have an academic or technical background in the arts. Almost everything I learned was through experiments, trial and error, as well as my experience as an urban and graffiti artist, where I developed my style. In recent years, I have incorporated the collage of other materials into my paintings. Initially, I started with paper collages, and today I work with applications of cut wood panels, which add volume to my works. This is my way of “reinventing” painting, as my work is very graphic and defined by flat shapes of color.

Mural painted for Unibes Social Institution.

From these new experiments with volumes, I started a series of large-scale objects, working with three-dimensionality using the intersection of two-dimensional shapes. These experiments are inspired by the works of artists Rubem Valentim and Alexander Calder. I have been working a lot with wood, a material that attracts me for its manuality and versatility. Wood can be manipulated with simple tools, which provides various possibilities for the work, allowing me to explore its textures and shapes in a very tactile and intuitive way.

I am not naturally an organized person. Therefore, I force myself to create and maintain routines so that I do not lose focus. I try to keep regular hours, and the organization of the studio is crucial for this. I have my daily rituals of organizing my workspace, which helps “kick-start” my brain to begin the day. This routine I create to keep myself organized is reflected in my work process. Rationality is very important in my art. There is a planning phase that is as important as the execution. When I have an idea, sometimes I spend days sketching and thinking about what I want to do, experimenting with similar ideas until I come up with something I really want to develop.

I like to have a basic plan to guide me during development, but this does not prevent me from being open to what chance brings to the process. Sometimes chance presents a more interesting path than the original plan. In summary: the idea is to have a plan but not be bound by it.