Nelson Carrilho

Date of Birth 1953

Born in Curacao

Sculptor

Bio

Nelson Carrilho (1953, Curaçao; residing in the Netherlands)

Satires in bronze, full of humour or biting sarcasm, questions and answers that often evoke strong emotions – those are the characteristic features in the sculptures of Nelson Carrilho. Identity - who cares?, We are going to Holland, Waiting for God and the installation Fools Parade. Power and impotence, justice and injustice. Obviously, politics and the church are strongly embedded in his works.

Carrilho monitors world politics with a suspicious eye. He is an observer who cannot intervene, but at times airs his vehement comments. 'It's a carnival, a fake world'. As in Waiting for God, where, engraved in the wall it reads: 'I never promised you a rose garden'. Cynism? Humour? Man clings to so many symbols, what would happen if those symbols disappear, and walls are demolished like the Berlin wall?
Nelson Carrilho's works do not only hold an accusation, they also tell about liberation and the emotions that can be evoked by it. You don't have to visit Curaçao or Amsterdam to understand Carrilho's works, they speak for themselves; you do not have to know him in person to appreciate the beauty of his works, but I consider myself lucky that he was willing to tell me what I am telling you now and point out details I would otherwise have missed. Such as the wink in La femme et l'oiseau (The woman and the bird); a woman tells a secret to her best friend the bird, even though she should know that in literature the bird is the symbol of indiscretion. Two vices having a tète-à-tète.

Training:

1975 – 1980 Artibus, Design Academy Utrecht, the Netherlands

More information about the artist: www.nelsoncarrilho.com

Nelson Carrilho

Bio