Kinkas was born in Brazil, in the State of Espirito Santo, at the heart of the tropical Atlantic Forest. He went on to spend the greater part of his youth in Rio de Janeiro. After studying Journalism at the Federal University, he followed his passion for graphics and got a job as an illustrator for the press. Soon after, in parallel to his work, he ventured into artistic activities across several performances and installations. His liking for graphic design evolved spontaneously into a growing interest in colour, which in turn prompted him to experiment with painting in tandem with other plastic art endeavours.
Nevertheless, it is thanks to a graphics contest sponsored by UNICEF, securing him a six-month study grant in Switzerland in 1989, that his life path took a decisive turn. Immediately after this experience, he left for Paris, where painting would clearly emerge as his preferred means of expression and experimentation. His first Parisian pictorial endeavour, titled “Amazonica”, was displayed in the Esplanade Pompidou, on a 60 s.m., wholly painted canvas. After that, as a student in Plastic Arts at Université Paris 8, a decisive encounter with his professor and friend, Octavio HERRERA, member of the MADI movement, urged him a bit further towards painting. This passion, this necessity, has been with him ever since. His first exhibition was held at The Brazilian Embassy in Paris in 1992, titled “Anthropo-image”.
The plastic universe of KINKAS is imbued with his tropical roots. Nature and the human being within this powerful, omnipresent entity make up one of his preferred sources of inspiration. It is a theme linked with the fundamental questioning of humanity’s place in the world, of humanity’s actions upon the environment. Across his work, the clash between natural and cultural forces is translated across recurrent elements, placed either in juxtaposition or in opposition to each other. In this way, the body is treated like architecture, destructured and fragmented, in the sense of several signs and symbols awaiting to be deciphered – signs of the original chaos or signs viewed from the perspective of the final chaos. The artist affords us yet another topography of Eros, where, most of the times, the body appears feminine, nurturing, maternal – the supreme symbol of a tribute to living that spreads across his paintings.
The exuberance of his work, the chromatic and graphic profusion that demonstrates his partiality for bright and saturated colours, side by side or on top of each other, fleshed out with instinctive swathes and strokes, are also a metaphor for the transcription of a dreamy, enigmatic universe. All the elements of his pictorial score collectively hinge upon a complex, unpredictable harmony. Employing a contemporary idiom, Kinkas questions life’s timeless music, its mystery and its fragility.
Ever since his first exhibition, the artist has maintained a presence in the international scene. He has shown his work in Brazil but also in France, Hungary, Lebanon, Portugal, Switzerland and the USA, specifically in Art Basel Miami in 2015, and in Art Palm Beach, 2016. His paintings make part of private and public collections.
