Anderson Asteclines

Anderson Asteclines (b.1994, Brazil) is a Margate-based artist whose painting practice is rooted in instinctual and gestural mark-making. His paintings draw on memory, desire and traces of past encounters, reflecting on intimacy and identity, with two main subjects - gay cruising experiences in London parks and a complicated childhood with his mother and younger brother in the capital city of Brazil.

Painting with oil on canvas, the material process of layering, smudging, erasing and reworking reflects the act of remembering, until the images materialise like a dream or vision. This negotiation between revealing and concealing mirrors the impulse to simultaneously expose and camouflage personal experiences.

Asteclines’ paintings are populated by spectres of the past, exploring tensions between anonymity, vulnerability and longing with distorted faces and figures and symbols of mourning. These vivid paintings often evoke absurd, violent and visceral aspects of cruising, where pleasure and danger collide. The artist has also been investigating ways to exorcise a traumatic relationship with his mother through paintings, drawings, poems and monoprints that shift from the literal to the metaphorical and magical.

He holds an MFA with distinction from the Glasgow School of Art and is currently an artist in residence at the Tracey Emin Artist Residency in Margate, UK. He has an upcoming residency at The Cabin LA, La Brea Studio Artist Residency, Los Angeles in August and a solo show at Wentrup Gallery, Berlin in November.


Enquiries:

mail@wentrupgallery.com

 

Current:

TEARS' Final Show from 28 June - 31 August at TKE Studios, Margate. Curated by Tracey Emin.

Upcoming:

(Solo show) The Cabin LA, La Brea Studio Artist Residency, Los Angeles. 30 August, 2026.

3-6pm Private View.

Berlin Art Week, at Wentrup Gallery, 9-13 September, 2026. 

(Solo show) Wentrup Gallery, Berlin,  27 November, 2026. 

 

Previous: 

Coast of Bohemia Group Exhibition at Joseph Wales Studio, Margate

Memento Amoris, Group show at The Lido Stores, February and March, 2026

Ordinary Ghosts, Off-Season with Casey Walshe and Brogan Bertie, Margate, January 2026

TEAR, Darbyshire x Tracey Emin Artist Residency, London, 2025

Works Cited, Group show at Margate Bookshop, 2025

TKE Studios Summer Fair, Margate. Curated by Dame Tracey Emin, TKE STUDIOS, Margate, 2025

MFA Degree Show, The Glue Factory, Glasgow, 2025

MFA Interim Show, The Glue Factory, Glasgow, 2024. Curated by Sarah Tripp and Francis MacKee

Too Important to lose, Temporal Lobe Collective, Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 2024

Madonna Reveals She Bought an Anderson Asteclines Painting

In her latest Vogue Italia interview, Madonna reflects on meeting Anderson, says she was deeply moved by the story behind his work about his mother, mentions the sweet gift he gave her, and reveals that she bought one of his paintings.

Anderson Asteclines Featured in Art Verge 

Between Material Fragility And Chromatic Tension: Figuration At The Threshold Of Contemporary Abstraction In Anderson Asteclines’ Paintings

Anderson was just featured in an in-depth interview with Art Verge, discussing his creative practice, his background in Brazil, and his time at The Tracey Emin Artist Residency (TEAR) in Margate.

Click here to read the full Art Verge interview 

he was thin, with sad eyes and a welcoming smile