Many of Leonilson’s works are poetic and personal reflections on his life and the world, adopting autobiographical aspects. Love and lovers, feelings and sexuality, the body and illness are the themes in this written, drawn, and painted diary—the artist discovered he was HIV+ in 1991. Agora e as oportunidades is from that same year, a key painting in his oeuvre. Beside the figure drawn in black that seems to merge several bodies, we read: “I am one man, I am two,” “now and the opportunities”; below it: “I am almost 2 meters tall and I have been alone for several nights.” This is a fabulous character, evoking a mythological being; solitary and divided, with four legs and heads, he walks in different directions. Leonilson was interested in minimalism and white monochrome, hence the white that dominates many of his works and occupies the background of this painting with a reduced color palette. However, he never took on the cold cerebral rigor and ascetic stripping of minimalist artists; rather, his stripping is used to add drama and poetic emphasis to his very warm narratives. On the right, in the painting, Leonilson has drawn six glasses and the words “the Blacks,” “the homosexuals,” “the Jews,” “the women,” “the cripples,” “the communists.” This is undoubtedly the artist’s most eloquently political work, hence also its importance. In his words: “I realize the segregation that exists. And I, of course, am part of one of these minorities.” Leonilson would die as a result of AIDS two years later, at the age of 36.
— Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director, MASP, 2022
