1962, Salvador, BA, Brazil. Lives and works in Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.

José Bento's works transcend the formal limits of sculpture. The artist creates dialogues with architecture through silent interventions, constructions and deconstructions, interactive installations, photographs, performances and videos, using mainly materials such as wood - salvaged from demolitions and renovations -, porcelain and glass.

On his first solo show, in 1989, at Paço das Artes in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, José Bento already started discussing the relation between bidimensional and tridimensional plans, from models and objects that were made of popsicle sticks. On his exhibition at Casa Guignard, in the town of Ouro Preto, he approached issues that involved the materials used in his artistic production, presenting sculptures made with secular tree trunks from the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, which had naturally fallen. In 1992 he was awarded the Brasília Award for the Plastic Arts, in the 12nd Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Rio de Janeiro. In 2004 he exhibits his sculptures at the Museu de Arte da Pampulha, in Belo Horizonte, and presents his work “Floor”, a site-specific whose material, collected in constructions and demolitions, was assembled upon layers of metal springs and simulated an experience of instability as the public walked on it. Recently this work was also presented at the 32nd Biennial of São Paulo, occupying an area of 627 square meters of the Biennial Pavilion. In 2018 he presented his first solo exhibition at Galeria Millan (occupying Anexo Millan), entitled All Eyes.