Bené Fonteles

Born in 1953 in Bragança-PA, lives and works in Brasilia. He is an artist, journalist, editor, writer poet and composer. He started his career in 1971 at the 3º Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas do Ceará. Since then he wanders between art and crafting, basing his work by the transformation of basic or fragile materials, lifelike or barely affected by man, like stones, tree trunks, ropes, rustic fabrics, wires and others. Participated five times of the Bienal de São Paulo, highlighting the 32nd edition with the project Ágora: OcaTaperaTerreiro under invitation of Julia Rebouças as well as at the Panorama de Arte Atual Brasileira at the MAM in Sao Paulo and experimental shows at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea at the USP. From his solo shows, it can be highlighted the shows: “Sudários” at the Espaço Cultural Contemporâneo – ECCO in Brasilia, “Audiovisuais” and “Terra”, performed at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, “Bené Fonteles” at the Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro and many others. He is also present at many private and institutional collections across cities like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Belem, Cuiabá, Paris and New York. Besides acting as a visual artist, he also edited and published many books about artists like Rubem Valentim, Mario Cravo Neto, Athos Bulcão, etc. He also acts as a curator and creating expography projects for visual art shows and was also director of the Museu de Arte of the UFMT, the Museu de Arte de Brasília and was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by the Ministry of Culture.