Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil
With a career spanning over 40 years, Marcelo Cipis moves through several languages, including painting, drawing, collage, installation, and sculpture. He had his degree in architecture from FAU-USP – School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo and began his activities as an editorial illustrator in 1977. In 1982, he spent a decisive period in Europe, where he visited several museums that redirected his gaze and changed his relationship with painting.
He went back to Brazil and developed his practice alongside Dudi Maia Rosa (1946). In 1987 and 1988, he held his first solo exhibitions at Fundação Cásper Líbero and Galeria Documenta, in São Paulo. Cipis participated in the 20th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1989) with the group show Arte em jornal [Art in Newspaper] and, in 1991, in the 21st edition of the event with the installation Cipis Transworld, Art, Industry & Commerce, where he created a stand for a fictitious multinational company. He participated in the 4th and 5th editions of the Havana Biennial (1991 and 1994). As an illustrator, he won the Jabuti Award in 1994 for the cover of the book Como Água para Chocolate [Like Water for Chocolate], by Laura Esquivel, published by Editora Martins Fontes.
Cipis is a versatile artist – although his main support is paper and canvas, he is not limited by the surface, seeking multiple possibilities in the materials. He also has extensive experience as a book writer and illustrator. In 1998, he held the solo exhibition Marcelo Cipis: desenhos, at Casa Triângulo. Since the 2000s, when he won the important prize of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York, he has exhibited his works in galleries and institutions around the world.
His recent exhibitions include the solo shows Enjoy, at Bergamin & Gomide (São Paulo, 2021); The Wonderful Cipis Transworld, at Spike Art Quarterly (Berlin, 2017) and Marcelo Cipis & Thomaz Rosa, at BFA Boatos Fine Arts (Milan, 2016), as well as his participation in the 14th Curitiba Biennial in 2019, with paintings from the Drops series.