Marco Tulio Resende (Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, 1950) has developed, over more than five decades, a body of work devoted to investigating memory, matter and the human condition. He studied Fine Arts at Escola Guignard in Belo Horizonte (1971-1974) and holds a master's degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1979, he returned to Escola Guignard as a teacher, a role he held for 37 years.
Resende's practice encompasses painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking and installation. The artist makes his own paints from natural pigments and develops a palette dominated by earth tones, punctuated by white, black and blue. Earth, with its colors and textures, is central to his research, underpinning reflections on identity, time and ancestry.
The landscape of Minas Gerais and cultural displacements serve as recurring references in his work. The traces of everyday experience and processes of symbolic world-making likewise guide his research. Resende is described as a "visual scribe," recording memories and experiences in a fluid, enigmatic visual language. His work addresses the cycle of life and death through a monochromatic atmosphere charged with organic materiality.
In series such as Recortes (2004), the artist uses paints made from earths of different hues, in a sustainable process that combines soil, water, glue and pigments. The result is a palette of earthen variations, ranging from reds and yellows rich in iron oxide to dark shades obtained through organic mixtures. In Ex-Votos (1997), he reimagines the Latin term ex-voto suscepto ("in fulfillment of a vow") in painted wooden pieces that evoke popular religious devotion. In Ecce Homo (2013), Resende uses the barreado technique, in which clay soil is diluted in water, on ceramics fired in a Noborigama kiln. These works follow the Bizen process, an ancient Japanese technique in which unglazed ceramics are fired for four days, producing patterns shaped by the fire's passage.
Early in his career, Resende took part in the XII Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1973), an early milestone in a trajectory that would take him to the Panorama da Pintura Brasileira do MAM-SP (1986), the residency project Faxinal das Artes (Paraná, 2003) and the exhibition Brésil, l'Héritage Africain at the Musée Dapper (Paris, 2005). He also participated in Quando Atitudes se Tornam Escola e A Paixão Segundo Guignard, both at the Palácio das Artes (Belo Horizonte, 2024); Projeto Parede | MAM 70 Anos (MAM-SP, 2018); Compressores e Condensadores (MAM-SP, 2003); Diálogos: Tangenciando Amílcar de Castro (Santander Cultural, Porto Alegre, 2002); Terra e Mar à Vista e Projeto BR/80 (Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, 1998 and 1991); and Estandartes da Liberdade (France, 1989).
He held the solo exhibition Tantos Museus Dentro da Gente at Zipper Galeria (São Paulo, 2025). Other notable solo exhibitions include Ecce Homo at the Tribunal de Justiça de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, 2026); Olho Nu at Centro Cultural UFMG (Belo Horizonte, 2019); Sobre o Que se Desenha at the Museu de Arte da Pampulha (Belo Horizonte, 2017); Axis at the Palácio das Artes (Belo Horizonte, 2016); Útero do Mundo at MAM-SP (2016); Códice / Do Risco ao Risco at Museu Vale (Vila Velha, 2015); Ecce Homo at the Fundação de Arte de Ouro Preto (2010); and Axis Mundi at MAC USP (1998).
His work is held in institutional collections including those of the Museu de Arte da Pampulha, MAC USP, the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, MAM-SP, MASP, MAM Rio, MNBA, MAM Bahia and MARGS, as well as in the holdings of the Fundação Clóvis Salgado, FUNARTE, IBM do Brasil, BDMG, Tancredo Neves International Airport, Rede Globo Minas and Centro Cultural Cândido Mendes. It is also represented in notable private collections, including those of Gilberto Chateaubriand and João Sattamini, as well as in private collections in Brazil, Europe and the United States.
Resende also serves as a guest lecturer at universities such as UFMG, UFOP, the Universidade do Espírito Santo and Sheffield Hallam University in England.