Gustavo Charif (沙里夫•古斯塔沃). «Stateless», born in America (Buenos Aires, Argentina), lived in Europe and lives in Asia.

Writer, visual artist and filmmaker, he shows his artworks around the world since 1986 and took part in exhibitions side by side with Pierre Alechinsky, Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Antonio Saura, Bram van Velde, Roland Topor, Jean Miotte and many others.

In 2002 wrote an Incarnate Manifesto, published in the catalogue book Profane Alchemy / Alquimia Profana (Ed. Nexos, Bs. As. - New York) that accompanied his solo exhibition at Daniel Maman Fine Art.
He made some artists' books, one of them with Fernando Arrabal and Milan Kundera (Two Letters), exhibited for the first time at the individual exhibition Alexandria (organized by the Centro Cultural Borges, 2004).

In 1989 was named Special Guest at the First Art Biennial of Young Art for his body of work as experimental filmmaker (Recoleta Cultural Centre, Buenos Aires), and, in 1997, The Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires organized his first short film retrospective.
Charif wrote, with the legendary Argentinian artist Luis Felipe Noé, the script Recontrapoder (future project for a film).
His first feature length film, La razón (The Reason), was released in October 2010 (Prize “to the excellence technical and photography” at the Festival de Cine Inusual, Buenos Aires, and invited to the “Mar Del Plata International Film Festival”, one of the most important festivals from South America). The Reason has an unreleased song by Moby, who generously granted the rights for the film.

In 2003, he canonized Luce Moreau Arrabal at the front door of the Notre-Dame of Paris, giving her the title of Saint Lis in the presence of the Collège de ‘Pataphysique and two thousand people. Before that, he had canonized Fernando Arrabal in Buenos Aires. 

 
From 2004 until today, he developed a parallel work as musician with the pseudonym of Victorio Lenz. Currently Charif is a hidden musician working in different projects under several secret names.

In September 2012 he represented Argentina in Art Expo Malaysia, with a one man show, in Argentina Embassy booth. In October performs Lamborghini Odyssey: a live painting commissioned by Lamborghini Kuala Lumpur. The painting was auctioned in 28th October in Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers (the money was donated to purchase American art books for the Balai Seni Visual Negara (National Visual Arts Gallery of Malaysia).

March/April 2013: solo exhibition in the brand-new art-space of La Maison Française (KL, Malaysia).
May 2013: the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Kuala Lumpur requested him to create an artwork that portrays his personal vision of Qatar. The work is exhibited on 16th May at the "Peace & Security Forum", in the Ritz Carlton.

Soon later Charif was represented by Fuman Art (France) in international fairs Art Expo Malaysia (2012 and 2013), Art Osaka (Japan, 2013), CUTLOG Paris (2013), CUTLOG New York (2014).

2015: Takes part of "The Selfie Show" in the MONA (Museum of New Art, Detroit, USA) in a big selection with international artists Gao Brothers (Beijing), Rahman Hak-Hagir (Vienna), Vita Au (Hong Kong) and June Korea (New York), among others.

In 2016 presents in Taipei (Taiwan) his big solo installation 自然裡的美術館 (Ailanthus, or The Living Museum of Art by Nature), invited by the 關渡國際自然藝術季 (Guandu International Nature Art Festival).

 

2017: Release in USA of Are They Cannibals? (click here to see), the music video he made for the abstract metal band DIMESLAND (click here to buy the album)

 

2018: Worldwide release of Ophelia Moment (click here to see), official music video directed by Charif for the new solo album by Chris Connelly (click here)

 

Currently Charif works mostly in his literature and in a series of books (one of them in collaboration with Afa Annfa (click here), although his second feature film, Something Else, is on production.

 

His works are found in collections of Europe, Asia and America (Fortabat Art Collection, Elía-Robirosa Foundation, Einaudi, Stradella Bianchi and Burrus among others).


Films

Click here to see a detailed filmography (includes projects and works under production). 

Exhibitions (selection)

 

#Maman15años (2017)

Daniel Maman Fine Art - Buenos Aires, Argentina

22/11/16 - 20/03/17

 

 / Ailanthus (2016) - one man show

Guandu International Nature Art Festival - Taipei, Taiwan

05/11/16 - 31/12/16

 

The Selfie Show (2015)

MONA (Museum of New Art) - Detroit, United States

08/05/15 - 08/06/15

 

Cutlog New York (2014)

Cutlog - New York, United States

07/05/14 - 11/05/14

 

Cutlog Paris (2013)

Cutlog - Paris, France

23/10/13 - 27/10/13

 

Art Expo Malaysia (2013)

MECC - Matrade Exhibition and Convention Centre - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

18/09/13 - 22/09/13

 

Art Osaka (2013)

Art Osaka - Osaka, Japan

19/07/13 - 21/07/13

 

International Peace & Security Forum (2013) - one man show

Embassy of the State of Qatar - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

16/05/13 - 17/05/13

 

Absolute Charif (2013) - one man show

Maison Française - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

06/03/13 - 06/07/13

 

Malaysian Art (2012)

Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

18/10/12 - 28/10/12

 

Lamborghini Odyssey (2012) - one man show (action)

Lamborghini Showroom - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

04/10/12 - 17/10/12

 

Art Expo Malaysia (2012) - one man show

MECC - Matrade Exhibition and Convention Centre - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

26/09/12 - 30/09/12

 

Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Mar del Plata (2011) - film feature premiere

Centro de Arte MDQ - Mar del Plata, Argentina

07/05/11 - 14/05/11

 

Cine Inusual en el Arte Cinema (2011) - film feature premiere

Arte Cinema (Espacio INCAA Km 3) - Buenos Aires, Argentina

15/04/11 - 29/04/11

 

Festival de Cine Inusual (2010) - film feature premiere

Cine INCAA Gaumont - Buenos Aires, Argentina

06/10/10 - 07/10/10

 

Colección Elía-Robirosa III (2007)

Museu Oscar Niemeyer - Curitiba, Brazil

02/06/07 - 02/07/07

 

Colectivo y Singular II (2007)

Daniel Maman Fine Art - Buenos Aires, Argentina

12/12/06 - 02/02/07

 

Borges, evocar los sueños (2006)

Pontificia Universidad Católica de la Argentina - Buenos Aires, Argentina

28/06/06 - 30/07/06

 

Caballos en Libertad (2005)

Fundación Torres Agüero-Rozanès - Buenos Aires, Argentina

23/11/05 - 27/12/05

 

V Bienal de Pintura Paloma Alonso (2005)

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Latinoamericano de La Plata (MACLA) - La Plata, Argentina

04/11/05 - 30/11/05

 

Tras las huellas del ingenioso hidalgo - Homenaje a Cervantes (2005)

Pontificia Universidad Católica de la Argentina - Buenos Aires, Argentina

10/08/05 - 04/09/05

 

Colectivo y Singular I (2005)

Daniel Maman Fine Art - Buenos Aires, Argentina

02/08/05 - 04/09/05

 

Colección Elía-Robirosa II (2005)

Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa - Córdoba, Argentina

03/06/05 - 03/07/05

 

Doble Exposición (2005) - one man show

Ramada and Grean Sea - Buenos Aires, Argentina

21/01/05 - 28/02/05

 

Alejandría (2004) - one man show

Centro Cultural Borges - Buenos Aires, Argentina

07/10/04 - 07/12/04

 

Colección Elía-Robirosa (2004)

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA) - Buenos Aires, Argentina

22/06/04 - 22/07/04

 

Ovo Nero II (2003/2004) - one man show (with Ovo Nero group)

Eduardo Sívori Museum - Buenos Aires, Argentina

04/12/03 - 18/01/04

 

Expotrastiendas III (2003) - one man show

Daniel Maman Fine Art - Buenos Aires, Argentina

16/10/03 - 27/10/03

 

Sainte Lis (2002) - one man show (action)

Collège de ‘Pataphysique / Notre Dame - Paris, France

15/12/02 - 16/12/02

 

Ovo Nero I (2002) - one man show (with Ovo Nero group)

Zamora Arte - Buenos Aires, Argentina

06/11/02 - 29/11/02

 

AstroBoy (2002) - one man show (action)

FIAC - International Art Fair - Paris, France

24/10/02 - 28/10/02

 

VIANDE (2002) - one man show

Espace Accattone / Societé des Amis de Roland Topor - Paris, France

02/10/02 - 02/12/02

 

Alquimia Profana - one man show

Daniel Maman Fine Art - Buenos Aires, Argentina

04/07/02 - 02/09/02

 

20 x20 (2001)

Praxis Internacional - Buenos Aires, Argentina

04/10/01 - 01/11/01

 

La real irrealidad (2001)

Fondo Nacional de las Artes (FNA) / Fundación arteBA - Buenos Aires, Argentina

17/05/01 - 24/05/01

 

KaIéidoscopies: Arrabal et les artistes (2000)

Musée Baron-Gérard - Bayeux, Normandie, France

29/04/00 - 15/06/00

 

arteBA 99 (1999)

Fundación arteBA - Buenos Aires, Argentina

21/05/98 - 30/05/99

 

Charif pintado de oro (1998) - one man show (action)

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA)

Buenos Aires, Argentina

15/11/98 - 15/11/98

 

arteBA 98 (1998)

Fundación arteBA / Fundación Elía-Robirosa - Buenos Aires, Argentina

15/05/98 - 24/05/98

 

Retrospectiva Experimental (1998) - solo retrospective (experimental films)

Centro de Teoría de la Imagen - Buenos Aires, Argentina

22/03/98 - 23/03/98

 

Falsificaciones / Forgeries (1997) - one man show

Fundación Elía-Robirosa - Buenos Aires, Argentina

13/11/97 - 13/12/97

 

Charif 1987-1997 / 13 filmes (1997) - solo retrospective (experimental films)

Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art - Buenos Aires, Argentina

12/10/97 - 19/10/97

 

FotoDance (1993) - action (with Malandro group)

Age of Communication - Buenos Aires, Argentina

07/08/93 - 29/08/93

 

First Biennial of Young Art (1989) - films (with Gomorrita group)

Centro Cultural Recoleta - Buenos Aires, Argentina

10/03/89 - 20/03/89