Almeida & Dale is proud to announce the representation of the estate of José Leonilson (1957, Fortaleza—1993, São Paulo) in collaboration with his family and Projeto Leonilson to broaden the circulation and recognition of his legacy worldwide. 

Leonilson is recognized for a singular body of work that draws on intimate aspects, a particular vocabulary of symbols, and a wide-ranging experimentation with language and mediums such as painting, drawing, printmaking, embroidery, sculpture, and installation. His oeuvre records the pleasures of passion and sexual encounters, the pain of disillusionment and dissatisfaction with the state of the world, as well as the fear and doubt brought on by the fragility of life. 

By not shying away from addressing his homosexuality and his HIV-positive diagnosis after 1991, Leonilson created a body of work that is sensitive and delicate, yet deeply political, bringing private life into the public sphere against the moralism and stigmatization that prevailed at the time.