The Search for an Open Enigma presents work by Antonio Dias (1944–2018), an artist who relentlessly transgressed material and conceptual boundaries, tackling complex sociopolitical issues across diverse mediums. The exhibition title derives from artist-critic Hélio Oiticica’s 1969 analysis of the open-ended nature of Dias’ iconography.

Abuzz with potent imagery, bold colours and cryptic figuration, Dias’ mixed-media works of the early 1960s critique the violent military dictatorship in his home country, Brazil. These years saw the artist twist the visual language of Brazilian popular culture and charge it with commentary on violence and censorship. 

Arriving in Paris in 1966 with a suitcase and some drawings, Dias spent the next decades of his life in self-exile in Europe, first in Milan and later in Cologne. Exposed to Italy’s Arte Povera movement, he found himself drawn towards the ‘non-image’ and conceptualism. His works from the late 1960s to mid-1970s—which constitute the core of this exhibition—include monochromatic paintings riddled with text; geometric installations, systematically ordered to critique art and society; and performative experiments on Super 8 film. 

From the 1980s onwards, Dias produced abstract paintings rendered in metallic pigments, vibrant hues and dynamic formations while continuing until his passing to develop his mixed-media installations, which he infused with a poignant sense of humour.

The first solo exhibition of Dias’ art in the region, The Search for an Open Enigma pays homage to the versatile and subversive nature of his oeuvre through a selection of works that follow his artistic trajectory from the 1960s until the late 1990s.   

Antonio Dias: The Search for an Open Enigma is curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, with Reem Sawan, Curatorial Assistant at the Foundation.