Juan Casemiro (1993) holds a degree in architecture from Universidade Mackenzie and a master’s in architecture from FAUUSP. He lives and works between Conceição das Pedras, MG, and São Paulo, SP. In his practice, the artist evokes personal experiences: love encounters, grief, uncertainties; both in the configuration of the works and in their titles. He uses found objects from streets and dumpsters that, after spending time in his live-in studio, transform into something new. It is a kind of organization of his own life that gets evident in the works’ titles, which reference song lyrics, poems, and text messages he receives. His architectural training also influences his choice of materials (mostly construction waste) and the structure of the works themselves, which resemble elements like windows, columns, and doors.

His solo exhibitions include Onze Horas, Centro Universitário Maria Antonia, São Paulo (2024); Retrabalho, MAC Niterói (2022); and Oito horas não são um dia, Museu Mineiro, Belo Horizonte (2022). Group shows include Bolhas Siderais e Espumas Siderais, Marli Matsumoto Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo (2021); 13ª Bienal de Arquitetura de São Paulo (2022); and Warm Sun, Cold Rain, Zsenne Art Lab, Brussels. He attended an artist residency in Brussels (The Bridge Project + Zsenne Art Lab + Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery) in 2023, and his works are held in private and institutional collections, including MAC Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói and Museu Nacional de Belas Artes do Rio de Janeiro.

Oscar III (2024) presents itself as a gesture of reinscribing modernity through residue and intimacy. The work, made with a car air-conditioning filter and cigarette butts smoked by friends, recreates the silhouette of the Copan Building, a landmark of modernist architecture in São Paulo, on a surface that condenses two types of filters: one that filters car smoke and another that filters cigarette smoke. Thus, the work displaces the architectural icon from its ideal of purity and monumentality by simulating an intimate space (the cigarettes smoked by friends). The work performs an inversion: what should have been filtered out (soot, smoke, residue) is what gives the image its body.