Frans Krajcberg
Kracjeberg is actually a German who has lived in Brasil for many many years and speaks fluent Portuguese with a German accent. He lives in a tree house of sorts, and creates all his work from organic objects found throughout the Brasilian landscape (most of it, I believe, from the rainforest). His ability to fuse these pieces together so that they form a new, _____ shape is amazing, and I was greatly inspired by his respect for and awe of nature. His work is inspired by and created with the natural world, and he isn?t afraid of getting his hands dirty (literally) A welcome change from our present obsession with the sleek and sterile. -Esther

Laura Lima
Laura Lima is a Brasilian artist whose work deals primarily with the body. We saw this piece at the Cultural Center of Brasil in Brasilia, and it is entitled ?Gala Chickens?. I was quite amused by the fact that Lima chose to use chickens to comment on pomp. As creatures, they are pretty dumb, but one would never know it by the sense of self-importance they hold. Another piece we saw, at Inhotim, was a collection of costumes made from a transparent blue vinyl. I loved the piece, especially because the costumes were not made to be solely observed, but to actually wear. We each picked out a piece of clothing and an assistant put it on us, and for a few minutes we were a part of the art. -Esther

Maria Martins
This sculpture, which was in the Ministry of Exterior Relations building in Brasilia, is entitled The Woman and Her Shadow and is a piece by Maria Martins. Martins was a surrealist sculptor from Brasil, and it is said had an intense love relationship with Marcel Duchamp. Her work deals with desire and solitude, which can be seen in contorted shadow of this sculpture, and I was immediately drawn to the contrast between the figure of the woman and the fearful shadow trailing behind her. -Esther

Almeida Junior
Almeida Junior is a 19th century Brasilian artist whose large oil paintings sought to depict the true Brasilian: farmers, peasants, women washing clothes, and ordinary townspeople. His style, although very representational and academic, is quite textured, and the concept behind his work seems almost a precursor to the Brasilian Modernist search for the real Brasil. We saw a number of his pieces at the Pinacoteca art museum, and I felt that his use of color and texture really brought his subjects to life. -Esther

Portinari
This picture is a tile piece by Candido Portinari. The setting is Pampulha in Belo Horizante. Pampulha was an early project by Oscar Niemeyer that we visited towards the end of our trip. It consisted of several buildings around a man made lagoon inlcuding a dance hall, museum of modern art, and this the Church of São Francisco. The church was never officially ordained by the Pope becasue of its unorthodx building style as well as the controversial nature of some of these images by Portinari. The style of the images like much of his tile work is that of the older traditional Portuguese tile. The work of Roberto Burle Marx can alos be seen in this photograph in th form of the renovated garder mirroring Niemeyers curve and Portinari's mural. -Derick

Rivane Neushanwander
I knew I liked the work by Neushandwander before I came to Fortes Vilaça Art Gallery in Sao Paulo but I think these two were my favorite pieces I have seen by her before. The first one was the cloth signs hung like a market place. The second was the post cards behind it along the wall. The post cards were each pictures of places in Brazil that contained names of other places. I ended up taking a handful of them a mailing them off to my friends and family trying to explain how these post cards were a part of a contemporary art show. -Derick

Hélio Oiticica
I had seen pictures of this piece before in one of Cyricao's classes on Latin American art. He also told us that the piece was not shown for a long time becase of the controversial use of cocaine in the slide projections. We were wondering around Inhotim trying to squeeze in everything we could before the place closed and we stumbled upon this exhibition with exactly as it is seen here. All of us chose to relax in the hammocks and stare and the slides while the guards graciously waited until we were done to close up the building. This was one of my favorite pieces I saw at Inhotim. Oiticica had the images of Jimi Hendrix with overlayed with cocaine cylce around the room while participants were invited to lounge and watch the show. This was totally captivating and the perfect way to end the day at Inhotim. -Derick

Adriana Varejão
This is a piece by Varejao that we were able to see in the Fortes Vilaça Art Gallery in Sao Paulo. It was a small version of a larger tile piece that has been displayed around the world. This piece depicts hallucinagenic plant species native to Brazil. Much of her work is done in the style of Portuguese tiles. -Derick