Montez Magno began his career in the 1950s, dedicating himself to poetry. In the following decade, he began to move across various media, such as painting, sculpture, video, and photography. Given the plurality of his output, Magno established himself as an inventor. In his own words, ‘conceiving the inconceivable is one of the artist’s tasks. If that happens, we will “see” the invisible and, perhaps, experience the non-existent.’ Magno’s production is, therefore, a prospection of fictions—many of them unrealizable—as observed in his architectural and urban drawings, or in the so-called environmental projects which allow for a glimpse into possible spatial and perceptual constructions, stimulating the speculative vocation of art. Particularly from the 1970s onwards, his artistic work embraced a yearning for social transformation allied with aesthetic-political utopias.

In painting, Montez Magno also utilizes simple elements to elaborate compositions that highlight the geometric rigor found in the vernacular architecture of market stalls or houses. The artist emphasized in his works the alliance between abstractionism and spontaneous geometry in works of popular origin. His paintings reveal the existential dimension of space and the void as creative energy. A myriad of references is incorporated by the artist throughout the course of his work, from the orientalist spirituality of Zen Buddhism to Hindu Tantra. Montez Magno sought to engage in dialogue with artists such as Giorgio Morandi, Piet Mondrian, and Marcel Duchamp, or even contemporary Brazilians like Alfredo Volpi and Lygia Pape. 

His sculptural proposals transmute everyday materials and rearrange them in a way that establishes a universe, often with cosmological pretensions, which distances them from their practical functionality. His sculptures often experiment with the tension between body and environment, dynamizing the body’s perceptive capacities, whether through the manipulation, frustration, or negation of the observer.

Magno held his first solo exhibition in 1957 at the Institute of Architects of Brazil in Recife. By 1959, he took part in the 5th São Paulo Biennial. Although his work received limited attention during the late 20th century, the artist’s production has more recently gained recognition in retrospective exhibitions, such as Montez Magno: algúria, held at the Pinacoteca of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2023; as well as in the exhibition Canto à liberdade, held at Galeria Marco Zero, Recife, Brazil, in 2023. Furthermore, his works are included in the majority of institutional collections in Brazil, such as the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo; the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo; the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo; and the Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro.