Iran do Espírito Santo’s multidisciplinary practice involves sculpture, drawing and installations. While investigating the space between the concrete and the abstract, he questions the limits of visual representation and the perceptive habits typical of the contemporary optical regime, which tends to privilege the spectacular over the commonplace. His procedure always aims at an architectural project and its realization, with the prefabricated aspect of many of his objects remitting to the compositional style of industrial design. The distillation of forms to their basic elements seems to return the objects to a neutral state, where common things are decomposed into lines and planes in space.
Among the artist’s recent solo exhibitions are Tracciare il pensiero. 2002-2025, Mazzoleni, Turin, Italy (2025); Trilha, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brazil (2024); Iran do Espírito Santo: Janela Reflexiva, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brazil (2022); Iran do Espírito Santo e Fred Sandback, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel | Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2018); Playground, Art Omi Sculpture Park, Ghent, Belgium (2016); Playground, Public Art Fund, New York, USA (2013 e Aside, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2013).The artist has also participated in the group exhibitions Art as Agency, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2025); Cinco Ensaios sobre o MASP – Geometrias, MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil (2025); Chosen Memories: Contemporary Art From Latin America – Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift and Beyond, MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S.A. (2023); A máquina do mundo: Arte e indústria no Brasil 1901 – 2021, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2021) e Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale that Society Has the Capacity to Destroy: Mare Nostrum, Complesso della Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Penitenti, Venice, Italy (2019).
The artist has works in important public collections, such as MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; SFMoMA – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA; MOCA LA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA; Fundación Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Madrid, Spain; MALBA – Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, USA; Museu d ́Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, USA; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; CIFO – Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, USA; Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo, Roma, Italy; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal; Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães, Recife, Brazil; Museum of Contemporary Art Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand and Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.
