Rodrigo Matheus makes sculptures, assemblages and installations, employing specialized instruments and gadgets, such as fishing materials and hardware, dislocated from their habitual uses, without transforming or tampering with them. These materials, in his oeuvre, stand along fabric, branches and wool – more organic components – in formal compositions which organize volumes in space. Matheus’ work weaves a subtle critique of technical objects’ – consumer goods or industrial products – mechanization of daily life. Behind the artist’s compositions lies a piercing critique of the authoritarianism behind design, of the contemporary ways of living and making submitted to mass-produced paradigms.
His recent solo exhibitions include , Ghisla Art Foundation Collection, Locarno, Suiça (2019) e Hiato, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brasil (2018). The artist also participated in the group shows 1981-2021 Arte Contemporânea Brasileira na Coleção Andrea e José Olympio, CCBB – Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2021); A Máquina do Mundo: Arte e indústria no Brasil 1901-2021, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil (2021); AAA – Antologia de Arte e Arquitetura, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brasil (2020); Cities in Dust, Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2020) e Passado/Futuro/Presente – arte contemporânea brasileira no acervo do MAM, MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2019)
The artist has works in important public collections, including Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil; Collection Lea Weingarten, Houston, Texas, USA; MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de 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; Tiroche DeLeon Collection, Gibraltar, UK and Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.