Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Alexandre da Cunha was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1969 and moved to São Paulo in 1991, where he pursued a bachelor’s degree in artistic education at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (locally FAAP) from 1992 to 1996. During his studies at FAAP, he attended classes taught by Nelson Leirner, whose work relates to Da Cunha’s not only for the use of household materials and references to so-called low culture, but also for the acid humor that characterizes both.

In 1998 he moved to London, where he still lives, to study at the Royal College of Art and pursue a master’s degree in the fine arts from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, in 2000. His studies in the British capital were definitive in forming the artist’s view and practice, and living abroad enabled and still enables a shift in his perspective of his country of origin’s culture and artistic tradition.

According to the artist, the formal economy in his work is a feature assimilated duringhis formative years in Brazil, and strongly present in Latin American art. In his Interview for this Dossier, he claims: “ When I went to London to study, and distanced myself a bit from that repertoire, I became more aware of that influence, and I also began incorporating other forms of approaching art that were not as linked to this quest for beauty, for the formal exercise. I believe that it was more productive for my process tocombine these trends and incorporate more humor and irony into my work, for instance.”

Recent solo exhibitions of his work included Laissez faire, Camden Arts Centre, London, 2009; an exhibition at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, in San Francisco, in 2007; an exhibition at Paço das Artes, São Paulo, in 2006; and the ones held in 2008 at the galleries that represent his work (Sommer & Kohl, Berlin; Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo; and Vilma Gold, London). Recent group exhibitions that featured him include Los Impoliticos, Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Naples, 2010; Revolution of the Ordinary, Morsbroich Museum, Leverkusen, 2009; An Unruly History of the Readymade, La collection Jumex, Mexico, 2008; The View from Here – New Acquisitions, Tate Modern, London, 2006; The Structure of Survival, 50th Venice Biennale, 2003; and the Liverpool Biennial, 2002.