Ivan Grilo (Itatiba, SP, Brazil, 1986) lives and works in São Paulo. His practice encompasses photography, sculpture, installation and object-based work, guided by a poetic inquiry into affective sensibility, political dimensions and the passage of time.
Literature is a foundational element of his work. Writing guides an ongoing investigation into memory, silence and language, and finds material form primarily in phrases cast in bronze. By casting words in a metal associated with durability and permanence, Grilo enacts a symbolic transmutation that turns the intangible into concrete matter. Yet this gesture is deliberately subversive. Bronze, conventionally associated with monumentality, is used to give material form to delicate phrases that evoke the transience and fragility of human existence. Many of his texts take on a mantra-like tone: phrases that must be read, spoken aloud and meditated upon for their meanings to be fully grasped, inviting viewers to become speakers of the work.
His solo exhibitions include Cheguei, cheguei. Lar, lar, lar. at Zipper Galeria (São Paulo, 2025); Nem todo fato é narrável at Zipper Galeria (São Paulo, 2013); Terra protegida, terra prometida (2025) at Société Interludio (Cambiano, Turin, Italy); Aqui estou, estamos at Luciana Caravello Arte Contemporânea (Rio de Janeiro, 2020); Amanhã, logo à primeira luz at Casa Triângulo (São Paulo, 2019); Escribe una carta de amor at Mana Contemporary + The 55 Project (Miami, 2018); Morrer para germinar at CACW (Ribeirão Preto, 2018); Preciso te contar sobre amanhã at Luciana Caravello (Rio de Janeiro, 2016); Eu quero ver at Casa Triângulo (São Paulo, 2015); Quando cai o céu at Centro Cultural São Paulo (2014); Quase/Acervo at Museu da República (Rio de Janeiro, 2013); and Ninguém at Paço das Artes (São Paulo, 2011). He has taken part in group exhibitions such as Adiar o fim do mundo at FGV Arte (Rio de Janeiro, 2025, curated by Paulo Herkenhoff and Ailton Krenak); MACBA Collection (Prelude. Poetic Intention) at Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2025); Técnicas de diversão na arte contemporânea at MAM-SP (2024); Todo y nada están ahí para ser dichos at MUNTREF (Buenos Aires, 2024); Beyond the Sounds of Silence at Lowe Art Museum (Miami, 2022); Língua Solta at Museu da Língua Portuguesa (São Paulo, 2021); Latinoamérica en las colecciones CA2M y Fundación ARCO at Sala Alcalá 31 (Madrid, 2019); Il coltello nella carne at PAC (Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, 2018); Lugares do Delírio at SESC Pompeia (São Paulo, 2018); Avenida Paulista at MASP (São Paulo, 2016); Ao amor do público at MAR (Rio de Janeiro, 2016, curated by Paulo Herkenhoff); BIENALSUR (Buenos Aires, 2017); the 2nd Ural Biennial of Contemporary Art (Yekaterinburg, Russia, 2012); and the 16th Bienal de Cerveira (Portugal, 2011).
He has received the Prêmio Funarte Marc Ferrez de Fotografia (2012), PROAC Artes Visuais (2013), the Prêmio illy sustainArt at SP-Arte (2015), the Prêmio Foco Bradesco ArtRio (2016) and the Prêmio Fundação Marcos Amaro at SP-Arte (2017), and was nominated for the Prêmio PIPA (a leading Brazilian contemporary art award) in 2012, 2014 and 2017. He has undertaken residencies in the Canary Islands (Spain, 2024), at AnnexB (New York, 2018), Chão SLZ (São Luís, 2017) and Humus Interdisciplinary Residence (Padua, Italy, 2016). His work is held in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library (New York), MACBA (Barcelona), the Reina Sofía (Madrid), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon), the Pérez Art Museum (Miami), Fundación ARCO / CA2M (Madrid), MAC-USP, MAM-SP, MASP, MAR and the Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand (MAM-RJ).