Willian Santos (Curitiba, 1985) holds a bachelor's degree in Visual Arts from Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná (2009) and lives and works in Florianópolis, Brazil.
Willian Santos's practice investigates natural ecosystems, with an emphasis on marine environments and territories shaped by the presence of water, understood as experiential fields bound up with transformation and environmental instability. The phenomenology of water runs through his research as an element of flow, memory and sensory perception. Working with encaustic, mineral pigments, reclaimed materials and acrylic paint, he brings matter and time into relation on surfaces that evoke organic formations, fossils and abyssal landscapes. His practice incorporates reverse-logistics principles through the reuse of dried paint collected from containers and palettes, reducing waste and encouraging the responsible use of materials in the artistic process.
His practice moves among painting, object-making, site-specific installation and material experimentation, bringing alchemical processes into dialogue with contemporary discussions of ecology, geological memory and sensory perception. His works construct environments in flux, in which erosion, transparency, combustion, accumulation and reuse operate as formal and conceptual agents. In his site-specific installations, the exhibition space is conceived as a sensitive organism, capable of intensifying immersive experiences tied to ecological instability and flow.
The artist's research begins with the observation of natural systems that are invisible, in transformation or under threat, and proposes a reflection on environmental fragility, cycles of transformation and humanity's relationship with matter and perception. Water emerges as a structuring element in his research, operating both as symbolic matter and as a phenomenological agent capable of altering surfaces, temporalities and sensory experiences. In this context, encaustic assumes a central role as an ancient technique and a means of preservation and metamorphosis.
By placing permanence and disappearance, control and chance in tension, Willian Santos develops a poetics that brings together alchemy, spirituality and material imagination in immersive visual experiences that engage with contemporary debates in art and ecology.
His solo exhibitions include Águas Compostas at Zipper Galeria (São Paulo, 2025); Vésper at Centro Cultural VERAS (Florianópolis, 2026); Recôndito Plasmado at SIM Galeria (Curitiba, 2018); LIMIAR at SIM Galeria (Curitiba, 2015); nem todo líquido se desmancha em ar at Galeria Casa da Imagem (Curitiba, 2013); and Imanência at Finnacena Escritório de Arte (Curitiba, 2012).
His group exhibitions include Antes e agora, longe e aqui dentro at Museu Oscar Niemeyer (Curitiba, 2024); Objeto Sujeito at Museu Paranaense (Curitiba, 2024); Queermuseu: Cartografias da diferença na arte brasileira at the Cavalariças of EAV Parque Lage (Rio de Janeiro, 2018) and Santander Cultural (Porto Alegre, 2017); Sou Patrono_Acervo at Museu Oscar Niemeyer (Curitiba, 2022); and Construções de Ilusão at the Bienal Internacional de Curitiba / SESC Paço da Liberdade (2013).
He was a finalist for the 11th Prêmio DASARTES (2021) and was nominated for the Prêmio PIPA (a leading Brazilian contemporary art award) in 2014 and 2019. He also received the award granted through MARGS's 19th Edital de Incentivo à Produção Chico Lisboa (Porto Alegre, 2016). He undertook residencies at Infinitos Campos Gerais II / Campo das Artes (Balsa Nova, 2022) and Encontro de Artistas Novos da Cidade da Cultura de Galicia at Centro Cultural de España en Montevideo (Atlántida, Uruguay, 2015).
His works are held in the collections of the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), the Museu Paranaense (MUPA), the Museu Oscar Niemeyer (MON), the Museu de Arte de Joinville (MAJ) and the Instituto Collaço Paulo.