Artist in Focus - Leandro Dário - June 2015

Leandro Dário's principal medium is drawing explored through hand and digital methods, using ink, coloured pencils and pens. However, his artistic practice also involves a cross-disciplinary approach creating contemporary embroideries and installations. Always central to his work are questions relating to gender and identity.  His illustrative language includes stylised elongated figures engaged in tease and seduction, whilst orchid blossoms, male genitals and pink hues symbolise sexual orientation and erotic desires.  He creates a universe focusing on otherness with an emphasis on the fluid nature of sexual attraction.

Slowly we familiarise ourselves with Dário's hybrid creatures - where humans have become cross-dressed semi-animals - acting as intermediaries to influence and to mend outdated attitudes and prejudices. With his creative expressions, he contributes to the ongoing discourse of gender equality, imaginatively challenging traditional perceptions on the feminine and the masculine. Surprising, amusing, and at times shocking, these playful depictions bring to light fantasies and repressions that underlie society’s social expectations of gender identity.

Leandro Dário lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. Since 2011 he had a number of solo exhibitions presenting his hand-made and digital drawings.  He was the featured artist at the 6th Bienal do Esquisito,  A Face Oculta de um Acéfalo, Museu de Arte Contemporânea Olho Latino, Atibaia, in 2012, as well as nominated for Prêmio Artes Gráficas, 1° Salão de Outono da América Latina.  Furthermore,  Dário participated in  group exhibitions with Plus Galeria, Goiânia; Verve Galeria,  São Paulo  and Objeto Encontrado, Brasília. His work is held in private collections in Brazil and USA.