Beto Shwafaty

Beto Shwafaty

São Paulo, SP, 1977. Lives and works in São Paulo, SP.

Artist, researcher, writer and curator. He holds a master’s degree in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies from the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (Milan, Italy, 2010) and attended Simon Starling’s class at the Staedelschule (Frankfurt, Germany, 2010/2011). Shwafaty has been involved with collective, curatorial and spatial practices since the early 2000s, and as a result, his projects are connected to the contemporary spheres of critical design, spatial politics, the knowledge economy and visual culture. Thus, Beto develops works based on research (about spaces, histories and visualities), in which he seeks to formally and conceptually connect political, social and cultural issues that are converging to the art field.

He participated in research residencies at Gasworks (London); Villa Vassilieff (Paris); Lugar a Dudas (Cali); JACA (Minas Gerais); Unlimited Residency (New York); RES-O, (Turin). His work has been exhibited in collective shows and festivals in Brazil and abroad, among which highlights include the 33rd and 35th Panoramas of Brazilian Art (MAM, São Paulo), 9th Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre (2013), Love and Hate to Lygia Clark at Zacheta National Gallery in Warsaw (2014), Conversations Pieces at NBK in Berlin (2013), Condemned to be Modern in Los Angeles (2017), 38th EVA in Limerick (2018), MAC International in Belfast (2017) , among others. He held solo exhibitions, such as: Contrat de Risco (2015) and Tomorrow I Will Not Remember Nothing (2019) at Galeria Luisa Strina, Hablemos de Reparaciones at Prometeo Gallery in Milan (2016), Remediações (2014) at the Paço das Arts, Foundations of Design Substance at Oca Ibirapuera (2016); Monument to Imbalances and Disappearances (2010) at CCSP, and participated in collective and solo presentations at fairs such as Miami Art Basel, Art Basel, SP Art, Parc Lima and Artissima in Turin. His work is also present in several public and private collections, such as Fundação Kadist in San Francisco, Kaviar Factory in Norway, MAR Rio de Janeiro, Museu Nacional da República (Brasília), MAMM (Medellin), IPHAN – Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro, Guggenheim Museum, Casa de Las Américas CUBA, among others.