Flavio-Shiró
Flavio-Shiró (born August 27, 1928) is a Japanese-Brazilian visual artist and a leading figure in postwar Brazilian abstract expressionism. He is known for dark, dreamlike paintings that mix abstract expressionism with surreal imagery.
Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, he moved to Brazil in 1932 with his family, settling in Tomé-Açu and growing up in the Amazon. In 1939 the family moved to São Paulo in search of better opportunities, where he began his artistic training, painted movie posters for MGM, and joined the São Paulo Artists’ Union and the Grupo Santa Helena.
In the early 1950s he had his first solo show in Rio de Janeiro and exhibited at the first São Paulo Art Biennial. He moved to Paris in 1953 to study engraving and lithography at the École des Beaux-Arts and married Beatrice Tanaka.
In the 1960s his work shifted toward surrealism, featuring organic shapes and nightmarish forms inspired by his Amazon childhood. His work gained international recognition with the Guggenheim International Show (1963) and the painting prize at the second Biennale de Paris (1961).
From the 1970s onward he continued to produce, including large works like Pablo (1973) and Memória dos Cais (1987), the latter in the collection of the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. He has received several honors, including the Itamaraty Award at the 1989 São Paulo Biennial and the Eco-Art Prize at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
His art has been shown around the world, and it is held in major collections such as the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, and the Fonds national d'art contemporain. In 2019 the Japanese government awarded Flavio-Shiró the Order of the Rising Sun for his cultural contributions.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:45 (CET).