Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, May 3, 2026 : Cildo Meireles, a Brazilian conceptual artist, sculptor (#2543)

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Artist of the Day, May 3, 2026 : Cildo Meireles, a Brazilian conceptual artist, sculptor (#2543)

One of the most influential conceptual artists today, Cildo Meireles (1948) creates complex installations and sculptures that entice the viewer and challenge political, philosophical, and aesthetic precepts. Meireles’s artistic practice was shaped by the social and political conditions during the dictatorship of Brazil in the 1960s and ‘70s, and by the Neo-Concretist and avant-garde artists Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica. Like his predecessors, Meireles merges physical, cerebral, and sensorial elements in works that elicit audience participation. While Meireles’s works are often created in response to specific political events and situations, they evoke universal themes that are communicated through the viewer’s experience in a shared, rigorously designed and defined space.

In 2019, Sesc Pompeia (Sao Paulo, Brazil) dedicated to the artist his biggest retrospective in Latin America. Meireles' work has been exhibited around the world including 37th, 50th, 51st, and 53rd Venice Biennale; 16th, 20th, 24th, and 29th São Paulo Biennial; 6th and 8th Istanbul Biennial; 1st and 6th Mercosul Biennial; Lofoten International Art Festival, Norway; Liverpool Biennial of 2004; and documenta Kassel, in 1992 and 2002.

Meireles’s work has been the subject of several large-scale exhibitions at renowned institutions. In 2013, a retrospective organized by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain, traveled to the Fundação de Serralves, Portugal, and the HangarBicocca, Italy, the following year. In 2008, Meireles had a full-scale retrospective at the Tate Modern, England; the exhibition traveled through 2010 to the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain, and the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico.

His work is represented in major museums and institutions around the world including The Museum of Modern Art, Ny; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Instituto Inhotim, Brazil; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Belgium; and Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; and Daros Latinamerica, Switzerland.

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Cildo Meireles

Canto #1B, 1967

Red Shift- Impregnation, 1967-84

Virtual Volumes, 1968-69

Physical Art: Cords / 30KM Extended Line, 1969

Artwork Caption Insertions into Ideological Circuits 2: Banknote Project
1970

Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca-Cola Project, 1970

Left Bottle: Shows the famous political slogan "YANKEES GO HOME!" clearly readable against the dark liquid.
Middle Bottle: Features a stark, practical white text diagram illustrating how to convert the bottle into a Molotov cocktail (labeled with ingredients like pavio / wick, fita adesiva / adhesive tape, and gasolina / gasoline).
Right Bottle: Bears the self-reflexive conceptual question "WHICH IS THE PLACE OF THE WORK OF ART?" printed in white text