Richard Brandão

Richard Brandão (b. 1980, Montes Claros, Brazil) is a Brazilian visual artist whose practice investigates the tensions between presence, interruption, and the instability of the image. Working across a wide range of materials — watercolor, acrylic, oil, gouache, colored pencils, and pastels — Brandão approaches each medium not as a stylistic shift but as a conceptual strategy to question how images emerge, dissolve, and negotiate space.

His work moves fluidly between abstraction, geometry, figuration, and portraiture, yet all his series share a common core: revealing what usually remains hidden in visual structures — noise, gaps, interruptions, and fractures. Whether through layered chromatic fields, rhythmic linear constructions, or portraits marked by psychological tension, Brandão examines how identity and visual perception are built, obscured, or destabilized.

Self-taught since the age of twelve, he later deepened his research with an MBA in Art History, expanding his engagement with contemporary theory and curatorial discourse. He has participated in several editions of the Luxembourg Art Prize, receiving nominations and international recognition.

Brandão’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions in Fortaleza (Ceará) and São Paulo (Santos), and he has received awards from the Talentos FENAE competition, including second place in Belo Horizonte. His paintings are held in private collections in Brazil, Europe, and the United States, expanding the geographic reach of his practice and strengthening his international presence.

Brandão currently lives and works in Fortaleza, where he develops ongoing series that deepen his investigation into image, memory, and presence as a field of tension.