Henrique Oliveira is best known for his immersive and site-specific large-scale installations, such as his architectural Baitogogo at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and his 2009 Tapumes at Rice University Art Gallery. In 205, the Houston Airport System commissioned Oliveira to paint Travessia, which is on permanent display in the Southwest Airlines International Terminal at Houston's Hobby Airport. Henrique began his artistic career as an abstract painter and all his work grows from this classical training. His paintings are seemingly chaotic expressions of color and gestural brushstrokes that reflect his ongoing interest in the lineage of abstraction.
Henrique was born in Ourinhos, Brazil in 1973. He received a BFA in painting in 2004 and a Masters in Visual Poetics from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Oliveira has built and shown his own form of "Land Art" all over the world and most recently at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia. Henrique's work has been featured in a number of biennales in cities such as São Paulo, Brazil; New Orleans, Louisiana and The Democratic Republic of Congo. His work can be found in the permanent collections of numerous institutions and museums including Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Virginia; the Museu Afro-Brasil and The Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia. He was also chosen as the 2009 recipient of the Smithsonian's prestigious Artist Research Fellowship and the 2010 recipient of the Fountainhead Residency at Fountainhead Studios in Miami, Florida. In 2011, Oliveira created a 29-foot long site-specific installation for his solo exhibition at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, Colorado. In 2013 his stunning Baitogogo exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo museum in Paris was met with critical acclaim.