The artist Vera Chaves Barcellos was a member of Espaço N.O. (Nervo Óptico), a group based in the city of Porto Alegre that worked to expose new visual poetics in the state of Rio Grande do Sul by promoting their members’ exhibitions or those of invited artists (from other parts of Brazil). Barcellos also created a foundation, named for her, which now administers the archives of the Espaço N.O. group.
Roberto [Gonçalves] Pontual (1939–94) was one of the most prominent and active critics in the Rio de Janeiro art world in the 1970s. He also curated important exhibitions at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) during that period. In the 1980s he was among those who provided boundless support for the members of the “Geração ‘80” in his book Explode Geração!
[For other essays about artists working in southern Brazil, see the following texts in the ICAA digital archive: by the art critic Icleia Borsa Cattani “Imagem e semelhança” (doc. no. 1111397) and “Identidade cultural e relações de poder: A arte contemporânea no Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil (1980-1990)” (doc. no. 1111395). The Espaço N.O. group operated in the Rio Grande do Sul region. For a description of the works presented at its first exhibition and statements from the artists about the semiotic goals of their work, see the thirteen issues of the group’s magazine Nervo Óptico: from (doc. no. 1110913) to (doc. no. 1110925)].