biography of Vitor Dos Santos

Vitor Dos Santos

Biography | Artwork

Vitor Dos Santos was born in Portugal in 1981 and moved to Australia with his family in 1990. He grew up in the eastern suburbs of Sydney and moved to Lismore in 2004 where he started a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree. Graduating in 2007 with a major in painting and a minor in digital art and design, He then moved to Brisbane and has been living and working here since.

The artist’s signature use of charcoal, graphite, pencil, newspaper and acrylic paint signify the artist’s yearn for primary imaginations and child-like phantasmic exploration. A bilingual artist whose education was split into various countries Vitor uses art to express his own disenchantment with the hierarchies of his own, as well as other languages and cultural practices.

For his upcoming solo exhibition ‘Yelling at Letters’ Vitor explains his practice:

“Through an almost compulsive drawing process I was able to generate ideas and follow certain narratives, which led me to the absurdity of these paintings. Burst word bubbles, floating letters and clumsy figures with strange hats, subtly mock their own existence. The loose line work, rapid application of paint and childlike irreverence to formal etiquette only adds to the ironic disposition of the work. By humorously making reference to a disenchanted popular mass culture my paintings continue to subtly provoke questions about language, communication and cultural hierarchies.”

Vitor is represented by 19 KAREN on the Gold Coast & Libby Edwards Galleries, Melbourne.

EDUCATION

2007 Bachelor Visual Arts (BVA) Southern Cross University Lismore

Painting / Digital Art and Design / Digital Photography

2001 Certificate III Fine Arts Meadow Bank TAFE Sydney

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Sept -2009 Yelling at Letters, 19KAREN Contemporary Artspace, Gold Coast
Nov - 2008 Recent Works Joshua Levi Galleries, Brisbane

May - 2008 Recent Works Newtown Fine art Gallery, Sydney

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Feb - 2010 19 Mood Swings - 19 Karen Contemporary Artspace, Gold Coast

June- 2009 Pointless tittles Juglers Art Space, Brisbane

May - 2009 Hungry like the wolf 19 KAREN Contemporary Artspace, Gold Coast

April - 2009 Semi-permanentNine Lives Gallery, Brisbane

April - 2009 Semi-permanent 19karen Art Gallery, Gold Coast

Dec - 2008 X-Show Jugglers Art Space, Brisbane

Nov - 2008 12x12 Jugglers Art Space, Brisbane

Oct - 2008 Nine Lives Gallery, Brisbane

Sep - 2008 Brett Whiteley Art Traveling Scholarship Finalist Exhibition, Sydney

Sep - 2008 One for the boys Artpiece Gallery, Mullumbimby

Aug - 2008 BARI Festival Jugglers Art Space, Brisbane

July - 2008 Joshua Levi Galleries, Brisbane

Feb - 2008 Vitor Dos Santos and Leigh Pearson Byron Fine Art Gallery, Byron Bay

Dec - 2007 Summer Exhibition, Byron Fine Art Gallery, Byron Bay

Dec - 2007 Summer Exhibition, Newtown Fine Art Gallery, Sydney