Frans Krajcberg was an artist and environmentalist born in Poland and naturalized in Brazil. He moved to Brazil in 1948 and, while living in Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and the south of Bahia, he encountered the exuberance of the Brazilian forest, which resonated through his painting and sculpture. Over time, Krajcberg became increasingly concerned about environmental destruction leading his work to take on a more critical and engaged perspective. 

Krajcberg studied engineering and art at the University of Leningrad, then moved to Germany and joined the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, where he was a student of Willi Baumeister. In Brazil, from the 1960s onwards, he began to create reliefs and sculptures using organic materials such as trunks, roots, branches and burnt leaves, as well as natural pigments. Krajcberg also produced photographs, paintings and prints depicting the environmental devastation caused by human action. He was one of the first artists to address ecological issues in his work, which has made him a world reference in environmental art. 

The artist took part in numerous group exhibitions inside and outside Brazil, including: Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (1951, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1977, 1979, 1989, 2016); Exposition d’Art Latino Americain à Paris, at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (1962); 32nd Venice Biennale, Italy (1964); two editions of Panorama da Arte Brasileira, at MAM São Paulo, Brazil (1972 and 1989); 1st Havana Biennial, Cuba (1984); and Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century, at MoMA, New York, USA (1993). Since the early 1950s, he has held solo exhibitions at institutions such as: Galeria Domus, São Paulo, Brazil (1951); Galeria Gea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1956); Galerie du XX Siécle, Paris, France (1960); MAM Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1964); Petite Galerie, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1980); among others. Recently, the anthological exhibition Frans Krajcberg: Por uma arquitetura da natureza celebrated the centenary of the artist’s birth at the MuBE, São Paulo, Brazil (2022). 

Krajcberg’s works are part of important collections in Brazil and abroad, such as: MoMA, USA; Centre Pompidou, France; Casa Museu Ema Klabin, Brazil; MAM Bahia, Brazil; MAM Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; MAM São Paulo, Brazil; Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil; among others.