Sculptor Sérgio Camargo established a critical and attentive dialogue with constructive ideas in the 1950s, even though he never affiliated with any art movement or group. Compared to the principles of Concrete Art, geometry in Camargo’s work is more empirical and intuitive, with an intimate quality that contrasts with the rationalism of concrete art. He gradually abandoned all elements that could disperse or obscure the central issue of his sculptures: pure form. His work focuses on concise and continuous processes of exploring and combining elements such as cylinders, cubes, and rectangles. From the 1970s onwards, he used almost exclusively Carrara marble in his artworks. The predominance of white allows the movement, balance, rhythm, and tension of his sculptures and reliefs to come to the fore. 

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1930, Camargo moved to Argentina in 1946 where he attended the Academia Altamira, an avant-garde school founded that year by Lúcio Fontana. Between 1948 and 1953 he lived in Paris and attended Brancusi’s studio. In that decade, he began exhibiting regularly at art shows, such as the 3rd and 4th Bienal de São Paulo (1955 and 1957). In 1958 he started holding solo exhibitions: the first at Galeria Gea in Rio de Janeiro and the second at the Galeria de Arte das Folhas in São Paulo. In 1964, he took part in the First Pilot Show of Kinetic Art and held a solo exhibition, both at the Signals Gallery in London, UK, where Brazilians Lygia Clark, Mira Schendel and Hélio Oiticica also exhibited their work.  

From the 1960s onwards, Camargo took part in several group exhibitions in Europe focusing on kinetic art and in other prominent group exhibitions, such as: two editions of the Bienal de São Paulo (1965 and 1979), in which he received the prize for Best National Sculptor in the 8th edition; two editions of the Venice Biennale (1966 and 1982); and the Kassel Documenta (1968). His solo exhibitions include those at the Gimpel Fils Gallery in London, UK, and Zurich, Switzerland (1971 and 1982); MAM Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1975 and 1981); Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1987); and the Denise René gallery, Paris, France (1996), among others.  

Camargo’s works were acquired and commissioned by Brazilian and foreign institutions. He produced several works for public spaces, including a wall relief for the Palace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasilia, Brazil; the triptych for the Banco do Brasil headquarters in New York, USA; the column Homenagem a Brancusi for the Bordeaux Medical School, France; a sculpture installed in Sé Square, São Paulo, Brazil; and a monument for the Catacumba Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.