Growing up “where the river meets the ocean” in northern Brazil, and being close with his Indigenous Amazonian potter and fisherman grandfather, it’s only natural that Eduardo Santos would find himself inspired by his surroundings, and bearing an affinity for visceral, highly textural materials.
Aside from primal landscapes, in Eduardo Santos’ artwork you’ll find the humility of simple materials, a conflation of the natural and the “found”, and the tactility of hand-made and rough-hewn things.
These landscapes are actual locations, yet the ability to pin-point them is rendered impossible. In some ways, Eduardo’s visual language functions like memory. The “imagined” and the “projected” replaces the “real”.
Whilst Eduardo’s work can be considered minimal, abstract and somewhat graphic; all of it has a firm basis in the natural world, with the formal structural elements in nature and architecture being key factors. He draws inspiration through close observation of physical events caused by nature, such as the subtle changes of seasons or the light in a particular time of day.
Eduardo Santos studied at St Martins College of the Arts in London, before spending two years at the Instituto Europeo de Design in Madrid. Thereafter, Eduardo experienced life as a photographer, working in Marrakesh and Ibiza – places well known for their exotic colour, energy and sunlight.
Now residing in Sydney, Eduardo’s art practice has developed slowly by technical experiment and intuitive process. His work has a specific sense of place, time and emotion that is deliberately obscured by the format in which they are created.
Eduardo Santos works in two distinct mediums – limited edition chromogenic prints framed between aluminium and acrylic; and original oils with mixed pigment on canvas. The chromogenic prints are an overlay of compressed rods of landscape photography, where the line of the horizon is the subject.
As for the oils on canvas, they are tactile and sculptural. Eduardo works with gravity the way other artists work with oils or ink. Gravity guides the line and pins down his disparate materials of sand, earth, paint and varnish. Each layer accretes like sediment. The dense dry texture of sand and the lumpen rivulets formed by earth mixed with paint generate a haptic experience reminiscent of standing inside a river cave.
Eduardo Santos’ artwork is acquired by private collectors in Sydney, New York, Los Angeles, Kuala Lumpur, London, Berlin and Madrid.
CONTACT OTOMYS
Otomys is driven by a passionate team of committed art consultants who strive to deliver an enjoyable and bespoke art service. If you would like to talk through your art interest with us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.