The river

Geraldo Leão was born in Morretes (PR), in 1957. He moved to Curitiba in the 1970s, where he graduated in Painting and Drawing Licentiate. He holds a master's (2002) and a doctoral degree (2007) in History from the Federal University of Paraná - UFPR. After graduating from the School of Music and Fine Arts of Paraná, in 1980, the artist took part in collective exhibitions of the groups Bicicleta (1981) and Moto Contínuo (1983). He simultaneously worked as an illustrator and designer for newspapers and advertising agencies until 1984. In that year, he held his first individual exhibition at the Banestado Art Gallery, and from that year onwards he dedicated himself only to artistic production. His experience as a teacher began in 1989, when he teached painting at the Alfredo Andersen Museum’s studio. Since then, he began to teach in other museums and galleries until he became a professor in the UFPR’s Arts Department in 1997. Since the beginning, Geraldo Leão's production was characterized by being contrary to figuration. His abstract paintings, on large canvases, valued well-defined colors and gestures. In the 1990s, the influence of abstract expressionism gave them their characteristic chaotic aspect. At the end of this decade, the artist returned to order by separating the colors and defining the outlines. In mid-2010s, the artist returned from his previous work, focusing on the structure, without however silencing urges of freedom, conscious or otherwise.