José Patrício, from Pernambuco state, began his artistic career in the 1980s, soon after completing his course at the Recife Art School, from 1976 to 1980. He regularly took partin collective exhibitions and art shows in his native state and began to attract more attention in 1989, when he was awarded the Acquisition Prize at the 11th Salão Nacionalde Artes Plásticas (National Art Salon), in Rio, promoted by Funarte. Two years later he won the same prize at the 12th edition of the Salon. In 1992, he was involved in his first collection exhibition abroad, in Marseille, France.In 1999, after creating an installation for the São Francisco Convent in João Pessoa (PB), Patrício began to use the game of dominos as the mainspring for several other works.The appropriation of everyday objects had already interested him, such as in works from 1997 and 1998 which made use of plastic baby dolls painted black.

“Investing exclusively in domino pieces and confounding the public with his visual quid pro quos, José Patrício shows that a minimal amount of material combined with discreet gestures is enough to make mazes”, suggested the critic and curator Agnaldo Farias, in 2003.The artist has works in important collections in Brazil, such as those of the MuseuNacional de Belas-Artes, in Rio, the São Paulo State Pinacoteca, the Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães, in Recife, and prestigious foreign institutions, like the Cartier Foundation, in Paris. His work also featured at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, in Madrid, as part of the collective exhibit Os cinéticos (The Kinetics), in 2007.