Maurilio Lopes is a visual artist based in the Niagara region, living and working in the city of St Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, he emigrated to Canada in 1966 and obtained an Honours Degree in Fine Art from the University of Guelph in 1972.
Settling in Toronto he worked variously in Film, Television and Real Estate while continuing his studio practice first in Greek Town and then later in what is known today as Liberty Village. In 1996 a catastrophic fire saw the destruction of most of his early output. A photographic record of those early paintings along with a few original works are all that remain from that period.
Salvaging several galvanized sheet metal remnants from that fire Maurilio incorporated them into his ‘Tin Painting Series’, wherein he juxtaposed the metal panels with similarly sized painted canvases in a diptych arrangement. In turn these explorations gave rise to his ‘Dualities Painting Series’ where painted birch panels of similar sizes were likewise contrasted.
Maurilio has evolved his practice into using multiple as well as single canvases in his current work ‘Beyond Dualities’.
Preoccupations with questions of self knowledge, of meaning, of consciousness, of mortality, are evident throughout his work. Judging from the titles of a number of his paintings, as varied as ‘Knocking at the Door’, ‘Esse Est Percipi’, ‘Forgotten Memories’, Sofa and Chair’, ‘In the Blink of an Eye’ or the lighthearted ‘I Love to Cook with Wine’ and ‘Sticky Feet’, Maurilio’s breath ranges from the serious to the fantastical as he focuses his meditations on the choices we find ourselves faced with, real or imagined.
