The satirical press emerged in the French Revolution, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen: it was in it that, in articles 10 and 11, freedom of expression and opinion was established. Since then, the “Dessinateurs de Presse” – or Cartoonists as we call them in Brazil – have created a long history with politics and the arts. Here in Brazil, Henfil, Angeli, Chico Caruso, Laerte and the illustrious ancestors Manuel Araújo de Porto-Alegre, Angelo Agostini and J. Carlos – with ANDRÉ DAHMER – are part, among others, of this huge international group of artists who reach daily with humor and graphic art millions of people. Whether in the world-famous strips of The New Yorker, in the extraordinary work of Charlie Hebdo and Le Canard Enchainé, in the Italian La Carrozza, or in magazines and weeklies throughout Brazil.

ANDRÉ DAHMER was born in 1974 in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, and is a visual artist, poet and comic artist. He was the one who created the series of comic books Malvados, Comics of the 10s and the Life and Work of Terêncio Horto. He was also the winner of five HQmix awards and a Jabuti trophy, successfully publishing daily strips in the newspapers O Globo and Folha de S.Paulo.

But it's the artist we want to emphasize here. In his first exhibition at Galeria Silvia Cintra ANDRÉ DAHMER showed us cartoons (all in unique editions) that are a delight and a pleasant surprise in an Art Gallery. He also exhibited a very interesting set of paintings, whose theme is the virtual world. There, DAHMER presents precise comments that combine poetry, irony and some hope about the internet, art, contemporary social networks and our current bizarre reality. The painting “Stop photographing…” reminds us of some works by Augusto de Campos – who, incidentally, has a prolific partnership with São Paulo gallery owner Luciana Brito, just as ANDRÉ now has with Juliana Cintra in Rio de Janeiro.

Every collector should have an artist/poet/cartoonist like ANDRÉ DAHMER.