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Olá amigos,
Favor cliquem no link abaixo para ter acesso à Revista Wave Canadá e ler a entrevista original em Português. Obrigado! https://brazilianwave.org/wave-digital/wave-digital-5/
Wave Magazine Canada interviews Marcio Melo ( by Alethéa Mantovani)
WAVE MAGAZINE - What motivated you to choose Canada as your home? Was there any specific factor that influenced your decision to leave Brazil?
MARCIO MELO - My decision to leave Brazil in the late 1980s was quite acidental. I was a newly graduated architect, but l always wanted to be a painter. I already spoke
English, and when it came time to choose a destination to study abroad, Canada presented itself as an option. Realizing my dream of becoming a professional artist would only happen later, after I became a permanent resident and could dedicate myself to this work full-time.
WAVE MAGAZINE - What were your first years in the country like? Did adapting to the new culture, climate, and language bring challenges? How did you deal with these changes?
MARCIO MELO - The fact that I already spoke English definitely acelerated my process of adapting to Canadian culture. At the same time, French, being a Latin language, also benefited me. When it comes to my art and the exercise of expressing myself through drawing and painting, suddenly finding myself between two cultural extremes-Brazil and Canada-represented a great challenge. Fortunately, I was able to reconcile these influences without having to choose one.
WAVE MAGAZINE - What was the process of bringing your artistic production to Canada like? Did the Canadian public welcome your work from the beginning, or did you have to gradually gain this space?
MARCIO MELO - I spent much of my childhood drawing. As a teenager, I enjoyed visiting the Metropolitan Art Gallery of Recife to admire the works of Lula Cardoso Ayres and Vicente do Rêgo Monteiro, among other exemplary names of modern art from Pernambuco.
When I arrived in Canada, I already had clues about what I wanted to produce artistically. After many art courses at Algonquin College in Ottawa and the University of Quebec in Hull, I finally decided to dedicate myself to drawing and painting full-time.
Over the years, I have held many exhibitions, some in collaboration with the Brazilian Embassy in Ottawa, always combining themes and images that reflected my cultural duality. I've been fortunate to have my work well received, but I recognize that an artist's journey goes through many changes and what they produce isn't always understood.
WAVE MAGAZINE - In 1997, some of your works were deemed inappropriate by the
National Capital Commission and removed from an exhibition in Gatineau Park. How did you experience this? Do you believe there was censorship? And, in your view, has this situation changed since then?
MÁRCIO MELO - In 1997, I created a series of watercolors depicting male and female figures bathing in waterfalls, fountains, lakes, and rivers, in the style of the
Impressionists (Renoir). Although they presented a more graphic aspect and a less realistic stylization, more like stained glass, the goal was to create images that honored our relationship with the element of water.
On one ocasion, while participating in the "Artists in Their Environment" art tour as a guest artist, these works were censored as inappropriate for families while on display at the Park Visitors Centre in Old Chelsea, Quebec. This left me absolutely stunned!
I'm not opposed to artists who intentionally seek to shock as an artistic approach, but that was definitely not my intention.
Regarding your question about whether the situation would be different today, since | haven't experienced similar situations when presenting my work in future exhibitions, it's difficult to say how this episode would play out if it were to happen now. But, honestly, I think there will always be misunderstandings among some regarding the work of certain artists.
WAVE MAGAZINE - You participated in the CBC program "Rockburn and Company." What was that experience like? What impact did it have on your career or visibility as an artist?
MARCIO MELO - The program "Rockburn and Company" was a perfect synopsis of my lifestyle and career at the time, generating recognition for what I was doing and encouraging me to pursue that direction. At the time, I lived on a farm in the Pontiac region of Quebec, in an environment perfectly suited to painting. The house was on the edge of a lake, and I was part of a community of artists and art lovers who helped forge my identity as a Canadian artist. Ken Rockburn, the program's host, is still a great friend and collector of many of my works.
WAVE MAGAZINE - What are the main differences between Brazil and Canada for a visual arts professional like you?
MARCIO MELO - Since much of my artistic achievements have taken place here in Canada, the only way to answer this question would be to share a little about my own experience as a local artist. Canada is a country with many programs that encourage and support the arts.
In the early 2000s, I submitted a project to the Quebec Ministry of Culture for inclusion in the "Culture in Schools" program. The project aimed to create murals in primary and secondary schools, emphasizing the principles of collaboration between the artist and the students themselves.
Since then, I have created around 250 murals in schools across various regions of Quebec, which has definitely allowed me to make a living from art. The creative process of these projects has provided me with thousands of encounters with students, benefiting my visibility and deeply enriching me personally.
Other opportunities, such as exhibiting in galleries or selling artwork, are obviously relative given the phenomenon of the globalization of the arts. However, I can say that Canada, as a country with a great sense of appreciation and purchasing power for works of art, makes choosing a path in the arts something more tangible.
WAVE MAGAZINE - What are your upcoming projects?
MÁRCIO MELO - In recent years, I have expanded my creative process, working with diverse techniques and situations. In 2019, I began a series of murals with children under the age of five, demonstrating that it's never too early to express yourself artistically.
This year, I will be participating in an exhibition in which I will present two works in the form of digital prints. The exhibition "TROPI-X: Brazilian Art in Canada from the 70s to the Present," curated by Rodrigo D'Alcântara and Alena Robin, will take place at the Ivey Galleries of the Museum London in Ontario and will run from November 2025 to April 2026.
These works will be part of the curatorial group "Folklore Remix," which will explore themes and compositions dedicated to challenging and engaging with the notion of Brazilian folklore. For me, the exhibition will be an opportunity to share a bit of my journey as an artist from two fascinating and diverse cultures.