Rodrigo Cass

Influenced by philosophy and art history, Rodrigo Cass employs painting, sculpture, and video.

Biography of Rodrigo Cass

Rodrigo Cass was born in 1983 in São Paulo, Brazil. He served as a monk in the Carmelite Religious Order of São Paulo from 2000 to 2008, during which he acquired skills in painting Byzantine religious icons using tempera paint.

In 2006, he earned a BA in Plastic Arts from Faculdade Santa Marcelina in São Paulo. He also pursued studies in Philosophy and Theology at Faculdade Jesuíta in Belo Horizonte.

Throughout his career, Cass has received numerous awards and accolades, including Prêmio Illy Sustain Art, Prêmio Aquisição [Aquisition Grant] Pinacoteca de Piracicaba, Grande Prêmio [Prize], 29° ARTE PARÁ, and many more. 

The artist has exhibited his works widely with recent solo shows held at Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel (2023), Anthony Meier Fine Arts (2019), Galpão Fortes Vilaça (2016), and Meyer Riegger (2015). Additionally, Cass's works have been featured in group exhibitions, including "Nunca só essa mente, nunca só esse mundo" at Carpintaria in Rio de Janeiro (2023), "ABERTO 01" at Casa Oscar Niemeyer in São Paulo (2022), "Engraved into the Body" at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York (2021), and many more. 

Currently, the artist lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.

Rodrigo Cass' Art Style

Rodrigo Cass engages with the constructive tradition in Brazilian art by employing a formal vocabulary that references the Concrete and Neoconcrete experiments of the 1960s and 1970s. His fascination with intersections and disruptions within the pictorial plane is evident, resulting in surfaces that take on volumetric dimensions in spaces, encompassing canvases, reliefs, and videos. Cass frequently uses materials such as concrete, fiberglass, and linen, which he colors with tempera, emphasizing texture and materiality in his artworks.

The artist transforms concrete into a fluid medium that he applies directly onto canvas with brushes. His rhythmic concrete lines evoke text on a page or a labyrinthine system of corridors, forming a metaphysical landscape open to exploration. Amidst the repetition, Cass introduces moments of stillness, a crucial aspect of his artistic vision. This stillness carries expressive weight akin to pauses in poetry or intervals of silence in music—moments that highlight absence as a form of profound expression and contemplation.