Francisco Severino

Living in São Paulo since 1972, he gave up his job as a metalworker in São Bernardo do Campo to devote himself to the plastic arts in 1975, as a self-taught artist and with the support of his friend and colleague Rodolpho Tamanini Netto.

That same year, he took part in his first group show, at Galerie Alpendre, in São Paulo, and three years later held his first solo exhibition at Galerie d'Art de l'Alliance Française, also in São Paulo, followed by others in Rio de Janeiro, Descoberto (MG), Santos (SP) and SãoJoao de Nepomuceno (MG). 

In São Paulo, he frequently exhibits at Galerie Jacques Ardiès. His group shows abroad include exhibitions at Galerie Naïfs do Monde Entier in Paris, Brésil Naïfs, at Galerie 4 in La Défense, Paris, Brazilian Naive Art, a touring exhibition in 40 American cities, among others. 

On the occasion of his solo show at Galerie Jacques Ardiès, in 2006, art critic Oscar d'Ambrosio wrote: "His great achievement is his way of working with green, with variations of his own, of who is aware that painting, much more than a subject, is a way of developing a thought through colors and forms.

What impresses me about his paintings is the blend of technical purity with a heavenly feeling, as if time stood still for him to paint his rather rural images, created by his own work with fundamental details".