Elias Santos da Silva (born 1966) is a contemporary artist from Brazil, who currently lives and works on the remote island of Biopeba. His work explores the body in formation and the collective forces that subsequently shape it. He has a particular interest in man's relationship with the urban environment.
Elias' early fascination with illustration was fuelled by his brother, a graphic artist, whose drawings were heavily inked and drenched in surrealism. Elias' own first body of work, illustrations of local orchids in his childhood home of Valença, reflected his love of botany and sowed the seeds for his future art practice. These illustrations were later exhibited in Rio de Janerio during the Eco 92 Summit for the Environment, and brought about Elias' move to the city. His experience of Salvador, where he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts at the Federal University of Bahia, profoundly changed the direction of his work. He abandoned botanic illustration to concentrate on the human form, and the ways in which it speaks to us of the human condition.
Wax and opaline paper are Elias' media of choice. He says, "I try to free the stroke from any previous conditioning, facing the white surface of the medium as a desert where meaningful territories need to be created. An image is gradually produced in the process of confronting the vacuum."
Elias' work has been widely exhibited in Brazil and has been recognised in awards from the Regional Salon of Fine Arts of Bahia and the Dannemann Cultural Centre in 2006.
EXHIBITIONS
Brazil-USA Cultural Association, Salvador - Bahia, 2007
Exhibition of Drawings - Boipeba - Bahia, 2006
25 Artists from Bahia - 25 years of Solar do Ferrão Art Gallery, Salvador, 2006
6th Cultural Fair - Via Magia Institut - Escola Bahiana de Expansão Cultural, Salvador, 2005
Loading Life - Tidelli Store, Salvador, 2004
Sensory Machine - Alliance Française Art Gallery, Salvador, 2004
2003 5th Cultural Fair - Via Magia Institut - Alliance Française Art Gallery, Salvador, 2003
5th Cultural Fair - Brazil-USA Cultural Association, Salvador, 2003
Exhibition of Awarded Works - 6th Recôncavo Biennial - Dutch Consulate, Salvador, 2003
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