Leonilson was born in Fortaleza in 1957. He died in São Paulo in 1993. Influenced by the drawings of Eva Hesse, the graffiti art of Keith Haring, and the embroidered images of Brazilian folk artist Arthur Bispo do Rosário, Leonilson’s art, predominantly autobiographical, displays a hand-made simplicity and an intimacy and expression of pure emotion. His compositions, which suggest an aerial view of points on the ground, are poetic and musical, even romantic, in atmosphere. Animals and musical instruments such as pianos and trombones appear in a state of suspension in his works. Maps showing traces of his own movements also became an important theme for Leonilson, a frequent traveler. Raised in a family that ran a fabric shop, Leonilson had felt a deep familiarity with fabrics since childhood and he began to employ cloth as a medium in 1989. His fabrics, cushions, and sheets, sewn from colorful pieces of cloth and hand embroidered, cause the viewer to feel more immediately and sensually the close relationship of cloth to the body. As a gay artist, Leonilson was deeply aware of the prejudiced society in which he lived and often sought to subvert the boundaries between male and female domains, as with his work in embroidery. The discovery in 1991 that he was HIV positive strongly impacted his art. The uncertainty and fear of death found expression, in Leonilson’s final years, in works evoking transience and fragility.