About João Manoel Feliciano

João Manoel Feliciano is a Spanish – Brazilian artist, active both in Europe and Brazil, currently based in Madrid. Feliciano’s diverse body of work ranges from traditional media of drawing, painting, to process-oriented, videos and photography or time-based “action” art, The performances and videos are usually of long duration, function as a ritual and often circulate around his hair as a theme.

Conceptually, Feliciano suggests that hair exercises an undeniable effect (on both the artist and the audience) when it takes on psychological, social, racial and/or political subjects. In addition, some of his works incorporate animals, bones and especially organic, common materials as well as references to trees or anything that has had profound personal meaning and in some manner expose Feliciano’s life trajectory. Recurring motifs in his works suggest that art, the hair mythology, organic materials, and one’s “everyday life” are ultimately inseparable.

Feliciano’s background and cultural heritage is evident in his work since mostly he presents it with self-portraits or in combination with his hair in relation to other objects, creating dialogues within his human-intellectual trajectory. This is especially true since his home-town Recife, in Brazil, (a town founded by the Dutch and built and shaped by the mestizo people) to his current home base, Madrid, where Feliciano finished his master’s degree in art therapy. The thesis was on how the concept of space can help in social integration of adolescents’ immigrants of Muslim origin.

Joào Manoel Feliciano “Capillary Culture” 2017, photo by Pete Purnell