Isfer is the artistic signature of Wilson Isfer Filho, a Luso Brazilian visual artist and sculptor born in São Paulo and deeply rooted in the cultural and humanistic landscape of Curitiba. His background in Visual Arts reflects a mature journey built upon the intersection of diverse disciplines, encompassing drawing, painting, cinema, theater, brand identity, and design. This multifaceted experience has endowed his practice with a unique compositional rigor based on a deep understanding of symbols, forms, and spatial relationships.
An artist’s identity is not constructed in isolation. It is the result of a direct confrontation with matter, the assimilation of the territories inhabited, and the cultural lineages that cross one's path. I belong to a Paraná lineage strongly connected to the land, the ethics of hard work, entrepreneurship, and moral responsibility. In the Isfer family, my upbringing was grounded in discipline, determination, and a genuine spiritual search. The legacy of my great grandfather Abibe Isfer, a prominent leader of the Spiritist Federation of Paraná during the second half of the 20th century, illustrates this dedication to values that transcend matter, echoing today in my drive to sculpt the immaterial out of raw stone.
The expansion of my artistic and intellectual repertoire acquired international dimensions. After living in Switzerland at sixteen, and later working in New Zealand from 2008 to 2010, living in Lisbon and acquiring Portuguese citizenship consolidated my identity as a Luso Brazilian artist. In this context, my marriage to Joana da Costa Cabral established a meaningful connection with two important artistic and cultural inheritances.
Through Joana’s paternal family, I experienced a close relationship with the creative and avant-garde environment of her father, the visual artist Jejo Cornelsen. This bond also brought me close to the legacy of her paternal grandparents, Cleuza Lupion Cornelsen and the renowned architect and urbanist Ayrton "Lolô" Cornelsen, an iconic figure of Brazilian modernist architecture. Engaging with this atmosphere of forms, architectural projects, and creative freedom strengthened my understanding that art demands technical mastery, spatial awareness, and formal discipline. On her mother’s side, the lineage of Maria da Graça da Costa Cabral connects to Portuguese history and the tradition of the Counts of Tomar, a family with a historic presence in Portugal’s cultural heritage.
Upon returning to Brazil, I maintained a solid professional career in design and visual communications for many years. In 2023, my path reached a pivotal artistic turning point through dedicated physical and conceptual research into stone sculpture. Confronting marble and raw stone unlocked a rigorous field of investigation centered on understanding the material's resistance, honoring its mineral structure, and revealing forms that evoke unseen dimensions of existence.
Isfer's sculptural practice unites the vitality of organic forms with emotional depth, ancestral memory, and spirituality. Stone provides physical resistance and enduring presence; the work seeks to create a space for contemplation and reflection. This blog gathers sculptures, studio processes, essays, and the record of an artistic journey in continuous transformation.
- Percurso em Artes Visuais e Trajetória de Isfer (Atelier Wilson Isfer)
- Biografia de Abibe Isfer (Federação Espírita do Paraná)
- Obra de Jejo Cornelsen (Artes Plásticas e Belas Artes de Lisboa)
- Acervo Arquitetônico de Ayrton "Lolô" Cornelsen (Casa da Arquitetura de Curitiba)
Arquivo Histórico dos Condes de Tomar e Família da Costa Cabral (Convento de Cristo, Portugal)