Nino

João Cosmo Felix was born in 1920 in Juazeiro do Norte, in the interior of Ceará State. Before carving wooden figures he worked in the sugar mills and was a blacksmith by trade. Turning to sculpting, he developed an original style, with impact on the very personal interpretation of daily life and imagination linked to the folk festivals and myths. He began by producing toys in amburana and timbauva (Mimosa family) wood - monkeys with rope tails, for example – and went on to build large human “figures” linked to the history of cangaço [social banditry in Northeast Brazil]. Later he would address a variety of themes and his sculptures – in vigorous tree trunks – are outstanding as recurring forms of animals (birds, fish, horses, goats, etc.) as well as personalities and scenes from the reisado – a folk revelry played around Christmas and Epiphany. He painted details or the entire piece in oil using contrasting colours. He died on 26 August 2002.