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Mario Cravo Neto was born April 20, 1947 in
Salvador da Bahia, where he currently lives and works. He
grew up among the artistic circles of his native city and
was first exposed to sculpture and photography at the age
of seventeen. During these years he comes to know Pierre Verger,
who, as a friend of his father, the sculptor Mario Cravo Júnior,
was a frequent guest of the family.
In 1964, by invitation of the Ford Foundation and the Senate
of West Berlin, his father participates in a Berlin-based
artist-in-residence program and spends a year there together
with his family. Mario Cravo Neto uses this time working artistically
and increasing his contact with circles of European artists
and intellectuals. In 1968 he moves to New York City to study
under the sculptor Jack Krueger, a leading representative
of Conceptual Art, at the Art Student League. The following
two years prove to be fundamentally important for Cravo Neto’s
future artistic work. Cited from this period are the color
photo-series entitled On the Subway, first published in the
magazine Camera 35, and black-and-white photography dealing
with the loneliness of people in the metropolis of New York.
In his Soho-based NYC-studio, parallel to making photographs
he creates sculptures whose theme is the "terrarium":
the cultivation of living plants in a contained environment.
In 1970 Mario Cravo Neto returns to Brazil and exhibits his
terrarium sculptures created in New York for the first time
at the 12th International Biennial of São Paulo. This
is followed by more solo and group exhibitions in Brazil and
abroad. After a serious car accident in 1975 he begins to
concentrate on conceptual photography made in the studio.
From this period emerge several short films and videos. His
photography, which usually involves working with large projections,
is shown worldwide in solo and group exhibitions. In 1979
he exhibits together with Pierre Verger at the Museu de Arte
in São Paulo. In 1996 he curates Pierre Verger’s
last photography exhibition before his death at the Witkin
Gallery in New York City.
Between 1999 and 2004 he publishes different books of photography
focussing on Afro-Brazilian culture and on the Candomblé *),
particularly in his native city. The photo-installation shown
here, Trance_Territories, gathers together work from this
creative period. Numerous photographs were taken by Balbino
Daniel de Paula in the Candomblé place of worship Ilê
Axe Opó Aganju (see photo) regularly visited by Pierre
Verger. Cravo Neto describes Trance_Territories as being the
provisional result of the many years spent internalizing and
poetically interpreting his religion. Among other inspirational
sources, this photo-installation is dedicated to the Afro-Brazilian
deity Oxossi and to the intensive encounters with Pierre Verger
in Bahia.
"Oxossi is the newborn, the beginning of an African
Kêtu tradition in Brazil, the so-called 'great axexé,'
which can be understood as the origin and connecting link."
M. Cravo Neto
Solo Exhibitions (Selection) 1990 - 2004
VI Biennale de l’Art Contemporain, Dakar (2004); Museo
de Bellas Artes, Caracas; Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil,
Rio de Janeiro; Gallleri Image, Arhus; Galeria Bolsa de Arte,
Rio de Janeiro; Daros Latin America, Zürich (2003); Galeria
André Millan, Sao Paulo; Galeria Paulo Darzé,
Salvador; IFA-Galerien Stuttgart, Berlin, Bonn (2002); Espaçio
Cultural ECCO, Brasilia; Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan; Yancey
Richardson Gallery, New York (2001); Nationalhistoriske Museum
pá Frederiksborg; Palacio Aguirre de Cartagena; Contemporain
de Lyon (2000); Pinacoteca do Estado de Sao Paulo; Espaço
Neogama, Sao Paulo; Sicardi Sanders Gallery, Houston; Centro
de Fotografia Universidad, Salamanca (1999); Galeria Visor,
Valencia; Galeria S-292, Barcelona; Galerie Esther Woerdehoff,
Paris; Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires ; Galeria Pierre
Verger, Salvador, Bahia; Photo España, Madrid (1998);
Fahey Klein Gallery, Los Angeles; Oldenburger Kunstverein
(1997); Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona; Bohusläns
Museum, Uddevalla; Boras Kunstmuseeet; Solar do Barao, Curitiba;
Museum für Fotografie Braunschweig (1996); Kunstverein
Steyr, Stein; Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro; Centro
Cultural de Bélem, Lisbon; Catherine Edelman Gallery,
Chicago (1995); The Witkin Gallery, New York; Susan Spiritus
Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA; Frankfurter Kunstverein (1994); Museum
of Photographic Art, San Diego; Fisher Gallery, Los Angeles;
Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, DC; Vision Gallery, San
Francisco (1993); Fahley/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles; Galeria
Módulo, Lisbon; Houston FotoFest (1992); Ada Galeria,
Salvador, Bahia; Galeria del Teatro General San Martin, Buenos
Aires; Canon Image Center, Amsterdam; Galerie Springer, Berlin
(1990)
Monographs 2000 - 2004
Salvador, Áries Editora
Laróyè, Áries Editora
The Eternal Now, Áries Editora
Na Terra_Sob Meus Pés, Edited by Centro Cultural
Banco do Brasil
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Mario Cravo Neto and
Balbino Daniel de Paula |
