Hélio Oiticica was a groundbreaking visual artist and theorist whose diverse practice spanned sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, and performance. His expansive body of work laid the foundations for participatory art, offering radical insights into abstraction through the lens of social, political, and economic conditions in Latin America and beyond. As a central figure in Brazil’s Neoconcrete movement and a co-founder of the Tropicália movement, Oiticica’s innovative approach emphasized the importance of spatial awareness and embodied interaction. At the center of the exhibition at Dia Beacon, Grande Núcleo (Grand Nucleus) (1960–63) stands out as one of Oiticica’s most engaging environments. Breaking with the two-dimensional boundaries of earlier series like Metaesquemas or Monocromáticos of the 1950s, Grande Núcleo was created as a complex structure of rectangular panels, painted in a vibrant spectrum from bright yellow to deep orange, and arranged in a dynamic grid of varying angles and heights. Here, the viewer’s corporeal presence, movement, and perception of time and space become integral to the work, actively shaping the relational dynamics within its environment.

Hélio Oiticica is curated by Humberto Moro, deputy director of program, and Ella den Elzen, curatorial assistant.

All exhibitions at Dia are made possible by the Economou Exhibition Fund.