Tantão is a visual performer, painter and musician from São Gonçalo, this remote suburb of Rio de Janeiro. After studying classical violin in his childhood, he began drawing as a draftsman in a shipyard as he ran a paralel music career playing keyboards and synths with his former band Black Future- which recorded an LP in 1988 and split a year later, after the label’s director was fired for their record being considered ‘too experimental’. Now it’s worth a fortune as only 5000 copies were printed and it became a cult (their hit single “Eu sou Rio”, which named the film, was re-relesed in a compilation of Brazilian post-punk bands made by berliner label Man Recordings in 2006). After the band split Tantão was by himself stepping in between borders of visual arts and sound performance. His drawing and painting has been heavily influenced by his work on the naval industry as well as the street art and all his interest in the whole history of modern painting and contemporary art. It’s impossible to define the limits between his musical performance and visual work, as he always claims that his art is anywhere he goes. Tantão’s work fit perfectly the increasing noise scene of Rio and it’s subjacences in the subworld – being himself an icon of the underground art scene in town ever since, as well as the queer club scene. He performed alongside groups like Chelpa Ferro, Demillus & Duloren, DEDO and many others before creating his new band Tantão e os Fita with Cainã Bomilcar and Abel Duarte. Now he’s the frontman and their first record, made in 2017, is a nightclub hit in Brazil. As a painter he’s had collective and individual exhibitions in many cities in Brazil and also in Holland.
