São Paulo, Brazil, 1957
São Paulo, Brazil, 2013
Hudinilson Jr. was one of the most important Brazilian artists of his generation, influencing the entire Brazilian artistic scene, not only through his personal work – produced between the 70s and 2000s – but also because of his active role as a catalyzing personality of artist groups and experimental exhibitions. Photocopy – the technique that became his favorite over the years both for practical and conceptual reasons – began to interest Hudinilson between 1977 and 1978. During this period, the artist learned to operate the machine to its limit, exploring all possible graphic possibilities; he enlarged details, cut them, and widened again, distorting the images of his body to the point where they became pure abstract textures. He said that this exercise meant losing oneself to seeing, an “exercise of seeing myself”, as he would later name many of his series.
In recent years, the work of Hudinilson Jr. has been presented at important group exhibitions such as 16th Biennale de Lyon: manifesto of fragility; Every Moment Counts (Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden); Histories of Sexuality (MASP, São Paulo); Copyart in Brazil – 1970-1990 (University of San Diego); The Matter of Photography in Americas (Stanford University); United by AIDS (Migros Museum, Switzerland); Glasgow International 2014 and 31st São Paulo International Biennial. The artist also had his work presented in solo exhibitions at Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; São Paulo Cultural Center; MAC-USP (Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo University), and Scrap Metal Gallery (Toronto).
His work is now part of important collections such as MoMA (New York, USA), Cantor Center for Visual Arts (Stanford University, USA), Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid, Spain), Migros Museum (Zurich, Switzerland), MAGA Museo d’Arte (Gallarate, Italy), MALBA (Buenos Aires, Argentina), MASP (São Paulo, Brazil), Pinacoteca do Estado (São Paulo, Brazil), Museum of Modern Art (São Paulo, Brazil) and the USP Museum of Contemporary Art (São Paulo, Brazil).
