Rodrigo Cass

Rodrigo Cass was a Brazilian contemporary artist whose work joined the measured geometry of Neo-Concrete painting with a quiet, insistent spirituality. Born in São Paulo in 1983, he spent eight years (2000-2008) as a Carmelite monk before turning fully to art. That formation never left his practice. Color, line, and repeated gesture became ways of thinking about presence, absence, and the sacred, rather than mere formal exercises.

He graduated in Visual Arts from Faculdade Santa Marcelina in São Paulo in 2006 and later studied philosophy and theology. From about 2014 he was represented by Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel, the gallery that would accompany him through solo shows and international group exhibitions. Cass became known for a distinctive material invention: concrete worked over linen, often with tempera color, so that painting thickened into relief and sculpture. Beside those surfaces he developed video-sculptures in which short, ritual actions (pouring, turning, touching) unfold on geometric supports wrapped in colored cloth. The Latin root he favored, abstrahere, meant for him to separate and choose, not to flee the world.

His work entered major collections, among them the Centre Pompidou in Paris, TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in Vienna, the Nevada Museum of Art, and Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM-SP). Solo exhibitions included Até o Concreto (2016), Espiritual-Vivente-Respira (2018), libera abstrahere (2023) at Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel, a Joyner/Giuffrida visiting-artist presentation at the Nevada Museum of Art (2025), and Geometria Sensível, shown in 2026 at the Escola das Artes of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Porto and at Brotéria in Lisbon. Videos Continentes, confetes and Encontro amoroso do círculo com o quadrado appeared on Times Square screens through ArtRio and ZAZ10TS. At the time of his death, his installation Manifestação Revolução Mística was on view in the 39th Panorama da Arte Brasileira at MAM-SP.

Cass died on 17 September 2026 in Rio de Janeiro after an accidental drowning at Copacabana Beach. He was 43. Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel confirmed the news and remembered his gentle presence and generosity. Wake and burial took place on 19 September 2026 at Cemitério da Paz in São Paulo. He is survived by his partner Paulo, his mother Cacilda, his siblings Robson and Rosângela, and his nephews.

What remains is a body of work that treats geometry as a living, breathing order: concrete on linen, color as devotion, and the camera as a measure of time. Friends, students, and institutions in Brazil, Portugal, and the United States have spoken of an artist still opening new paths when his life ended.