João Ruas: Osso
October 1O–September 7 , 2O26
Brazilian artist began the “OSSO” series during the first lockdown of 2020, as a way of creating something that would allow him to escape reality and that could be produced more quickly than paintings. The reality of today continues to lend itself to escapism, which is why, six years on, Ruas continues producing this series. The process follows two rules: the same materials are used, just graphite and paper, and the drawings have the same dimensions. Reflecting back, Ruas believes that Goya’s “Caprichos” and Jean Giraud’s “Forty Days in the Desert,” two series he greatly admires, may have had some influence during the conception.
This chosen technique, pencil, is Ruas’s favorite way of expressing the ideas and scenarios that make up his internal mythology, a concept he has been developing for years. A human amalgam that seeks to unite the most disparate traditions and artistic expressions separated by geography and time itself.
This exhibition features 19 works, although the series already comprises more than 50 completed drawings.
João Ruas (b. 1981, Brazilian) is known for his haunted, atmospheric paintings which blend history, myth, multicultural references and the natural world into a rich and singular contemporary visual language.
Ruas was born in São Paulo, and at a young age exhibited a talent in visual arts, which led him being selected for a four-year focused technical course in drawing in 1996. He proceeded to college to study Design in 2000, graduating with a BFA from Universidade Anhembi Morumbi. Following college, he relocated to the UK, where he worked as an illustrator and concept artist for various gaming and film studios. In 2007, he returned to Brazil, where he had a brief stint in advertising before redirecting his focus to exclusively personal work and illustration. He has exhibited at venues in Brazil, the United States, Europe, and Australia. His work is in the permanent collection of the Urban Nation Musuem in Berlin, Germany, and is held in private collections all over the world. Ruas currently lives and works in São Paulo with his son Aurélio.