Jay Boggo (b. Joinville, Brazil) is a multifaceted artist whose practice spans fashion, visual arts, sculptural furniture design, and inspirational speaking. With more than 25 years of creative trajectory, Boggo is recognized for transforming raw materials — reclaimed native woods, natural fibers, marble, granite, and industrial remnants — into works that balance poetry, ancestry, and sustainability.

Influenced by nature and by his expeditions in the Amazon, particularly in Pará and Mato Grosso, where three major Brazilian biomes meet, Boggo is committed to the conscious and certified use of Amazonian woods. His work bridges circular economy, sculptural design, and respect for the biome, giving life to pieces that illuminate the ancestral memory of riverine communities.

Among his signature creations are the Banco Cacau, the Cadeira Cerrado, and the Flores Proibidas series. His works have been exhibited in institutions such as MAC Niterói and the Museu Nacional da República in Brasília, as well as in numerous galleries in Brazil and abroad. He has also taken part in major exhibitions such as SP-Arte and Casa Cor.

Boggo won the Elle Decoration Design Awards Brasil 2024 (EDIDA) with the Pallas Project, in collaboration with Guá Arquitetura and Vestígios Vedac, which reimagines the knowledge of Amazonian master carpenters. He also participated in the Bioeconomy Amazon Summit in Belém, an event under the UN Global Compact and in preparation for COP30, in addition to speaking at the United Nations in New York and serving as an SDG Ambassador. These milestones reinforce his position as one of the leading voices in integrating art, tradition, and sustainability. As Boggo defines them, his creations are a “passage” — between past and future, nature and culture, Brazil and the world.

1. Where were you born and where are you from ?

I was born in Joinville, in the state of Santa Catarina, and I grew up in southern Brazil among mountain ranges, forests, and the sea. These origins have deeply shaped my worldview and my work, combining tradition, nature, and memory.

2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?

My first memory is drawing as a child, inspired by stories of self-overcoming, feeling different from the other boys in a small town in the 1980s. I also remember the first times I touched the wood in my childhood home, feeling its texture as something alive.

3. Have you always worked in the art/design field, and what led you to the design creation ?

I have always been connected to creation. I started in fashion and gradually expanded my universe into furniture design, sculpture and the visual arts. For me, art and design have always walked together.

4. What led you to the design creation ?

The need to transform memories and raw materials into something both functional and poetic. Design allows me to translate my Brazilian roots into works that converse with the world.

5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?

My process is intuitive and symbolic. I work largely from memories, Brazilian landscapes, spirituality, and the strength of living materials. My influences come from nature, poetry, philosophy, and Brazil’s cultural ancestry. There is an Eastern trace in all of my art that I cannot explain — I only feel it.

6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?

A typical day starts with drawing and writing, followed by time in the studio where I spend hours experimenting with materials, talking with artisans, and developing pieces. But it is never the same: each project requires its own immersion.

7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?

Fabrics have always been an essential raw material for me, natural fibers. But wood entered my life powerfully, absorbing my soul and heart. Especially Brazilian certified woods, reclaimed, or from sustainable management. The choice is both ethical and aesthetic: I carry with me a commitment to nature and to the beauty of imperfection. I now also include stone, marble and granite in my creations.

8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?

They are hybrid pieces between furniture and sculpture. They carry organic curves, demand complex manual techniques, and constant dialogue with artisans. They are unique, often non-replicable, and bear the mark of time and memory in the material.

9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?

Be true to your own voice. Seek in your origins, personal experiences, and territory a singular path. And above all, do not be afraid to experiment.

10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?

Contemporary sculptural design, rooted deeply in Brazilian artisanal tradition.

11. What designers and artists have influenced you ?

Sérgio Rodrigues, Lina Bo Bardi, all of them managed to unite Brazilianness, technique, and poetry.

12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?

Those who challenge limits and bring art and design closer together, such as Wendell Castle and Nacho Carbonell.

13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?

Artists who deal with memory, nature, and spirituality, like Tunga, Ernesto Neto, and Joseph Beuys.

14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?

“Passage”, because each piece is a path between past and future, between nature and culture, between Brazil and the world.

15. Is there anything you would like to add ?

My work is a way of transforming roots into movement, of telling Brazilian stories to the world, always with respect for the material and for time.

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)

11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

Origin.

12. Which talent would you most like to have?

I feel complete when I admire in others what I cannot do.

13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Impatience.

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Building my body of work from nothing.

15. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

A tree.

16. Where would you most like to live?

Between Brazil, NYC, and Paris.

17. What is your most treasured possession?

My Banco Cacau.

18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Lack of hope.

19. What is your favorite occupation?

Creating.

20. What is your most marked characteristic?

Intensity.

21. What do you most value in your friends?

Loyalty.

22. Who are your favorite writers?

Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Clarice Lispector.

23. Who is your hero of fiction?

Don Quixote.

24. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Leonardo da Vinci.

25. Who are your heroes in real life?

Anonymous artisans.

26. What are your favorite names?

Pedro, Domenico. 

27. What is it that you most dislike?

Injustice.

28. What is your greatest regret?

Not trusting myself earlier.

29. How would you like to die?

In peace, creating.

30. What is your motto?

Transform memory into the future.