In installations, sculptures, drawings and paintings, Cristiano Lenhardt employs wood, paper, raw linen and natural pigments. Apart from these organic materials, the artist uses industrial elements, such as aluminum, copper and concrete. The material properties of these objects, their appearance in the light or their plastic and symbolic possibilities, are explored by Lenhardt in compositions that emulate geometric abstraction as much as popular decorative elements. In his series of paper foldings, for example, Lenhardt employs the fold as a drawing method, in which pressing and combining joints and fittings play with the contrast between the linen, raw and organic, and aluminum, more industrial and synthetic. Contact zones are created through the folds, interlocking the metallic aspects of the aluminum and the opacity of the paper or linen in one geometric composition. Similarly, in the artist’s complex conceptual repertoire, animals, humans, plants and stones are fitted with digital information, television sets and plastics.
His solo exhibitions include Tempo Elástico Plano São, MAMAM, Recife, Brazil (2022); Raree show 2, Galeria Jacqueline Martins, São Paulo, Brazil (2015) e Matéria Superordinária Abundante, Galeria Amparo 60, Recife, Brasil (2014). The artist has also participated in the group shows The Devil To Pay In the Backlands, Neue Kunstwerein Wien, Vienna, Austria (2022); Flávio de Carvalho Experimental, SESC Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil (2022); Por um sopro de fúria e esperança – Uma declaração de emergência climática, MuBE — Museu Brasileiro da Escultura e Ecologia, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Uma História Natural das Ruínas, Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); A Burrice dos Homens, Bergamin & Gomide, São Paulo, Brazil (2020) and 32ª Bienal de São Paulo, Fundação Bienal, São Paulo, Brazill (2016).
The artist has works in important public collections, including Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil e Coleção Banco do Nordeste, Fortaleza, Brazil.
