Zé Carlos Garcia’s artistic practice began with sculptures produced over sixteen years for samba schools in Rio de Janeiro, the city where he lives. This strong allegorical influence is intertwined with themes such as sustainability and references to the diverse roots that shape Brazilian culture. His sculptures and objects generate their own sense of strangeness, often situated between furniture structures and animal anatomies.
Commissioned by the 14th Mercosul Biennial, Garcia presents a set of eleven pieces made from sustainably sourced wood and fragments of furniture, all connected through a central figure—a monad. He carves faces into wooden logs, revealing the emotion hidden beneath seemingly inert surfaces. Through certain muscular gestures that convey physical pain or agony, these pieces prompt reflection on a world in transformation and on the inhabitants of a landscape haunted by the life that persists in its ruins.
Taís Cardoso
Zé Carlos Garcia (Brasil, 1973) is a visual artist. He studied sculpture at the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and attended the School of Visual Arts at Parque Lage. Zé Garcia's sculptures result from the combination of members from different species or a mix of feathers and parts of wooden furniture. This combination produces hybrids that, in addition to preserving the meanings of the parts that compose them, spark curiosity about their nature. His work has been exhibited in various solo and group exhibitions in Brazil and Europe. It is part of the collections of the Inhotim Institute, the Rio Art Museum, and the Marcos Amaro Foundation. He lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
