1968, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
The artist uses a large variety of materials, techniques and mediums to investigate the limits of sculpture. Damasceno's poetics departs from dislocation and estrangement to conceive fluid and shifting perspectives of space representation. The artist enhances and transforms these spaces by adding improbable objects and happenings. His research involves matters of surface and depth, of solidity and gravity, producing a physical, experiential sensation in the viewer through their contact with the work. For the art critic Ligia Canongia, the artist’s main point of interest is the field of mental associations, which can be established between the idea and the possibility of formal constitution of an object.
He has exhibited regularly in Brazil since 1993 and abroad since 1995. He has held solo exhibitions in important spaces, such as Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil (2019); Santander Cultural, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2015); Holborn Library, London, UK; Casa França-Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2014); and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain (2008), among others.
He represented Brazil with Viagem à Lua at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and participated in the Sydney Biennale, Australia (2006); L’Esperienza dell’Arte at the Venice Biennale, Italy (2005); Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2003); and 30th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2002), in addition to group exhibitions at the Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, USA (2017); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA (2014); Fundament Foundation, Tilburg, Netherlands (2009); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (2008); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA (2004); Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2001); Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2000, 2019); Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil (2019); among others.
His work is featured in permanent collections such as the Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, USA; Daros Latinoamerica AG, Zurich, Switzerland; Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Brumadinho, Brazil; Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.