O Lobo

Brazilian artist Bruno Vilela employs photography, drawing, painting, light projection, digital collage and literature to create his artworks. Explorer of texts in their cultural context, he bridges the literary and visual forms of storytelling to give form to the ambiguous experiences of his dreams and nightmares.

The language of dreams, according to Jungian psychology, is the language of universal timeless symbols and character types, or archetypes, which are preserved and communicated in myth, folklore and literature. It is not surprising that fairytale motifs often feature in Vilela’s art, although he has stated that his works are based on "personal mythology."

In O Lobo, Vilela depicted a lone wolf in a forest set against a fuchsia pink background. The wolf’s features are typical of the Eurasian grey wolf, the animal distinctly different from the maned wolves of Brazil. Is it the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, a fairytale whose main protagonist herself is a frequent character of Vilela’s works? Or do the animal’s white color and friendly expression lightening the somewhat menacing background of silhouetted trees indicate its totemic nature?