Guilherme Neumann, born in Ubatuba - Brasil in 1984.
I began my academic studies in 2005, pursuing Visual Arts at Faculdade Belas Artes in São Paulo, where I graduated in 2009.
My artistic career began early. In 2006, while still in college, I started working as a gallery artist under the pseudonym "znort". I was represented by Galeria Choque Cultural in São Paulo from 2006 to 2014. During this period, I held four solo exhibitions, participated in several group exhibitions, and was featured in major art fairs, such as SP Arte.
In 2015, I was selected for an artistic residency in Italy at the Civitella Ranieri castle. In the same year, I joined Galeria Lume, also in São Paulo, where I held another solo exhibition and participated in national and international art fairs.
Parallel to my gallery work, I started the "Toco-oco project" with my ex-wife Lara Alcantara in 2013.
In 2016, I decided to leave the gallery circuit to dedicate myself fully to the Toco-oco project. At first, I focused on creating wooden pieces. After stepping away from the galleries, I began to bring a reinterpretation of the work I had previously developed in the art circuit to Toco-oco. Until then, the work I created for Toco-oco had been more playful and decorative in nature.
Over ten years, Lara and I created a unique artistic identity for Toco-oco, working with small-format sculptures and paintings in various materials, such as resin, wood, and ceramics.
In 2024, Lara and I divorced. I resumed my old pseudonym, znort, with the aim of creating a new phase in my work, merging the experiences I had in the gallery world with what I had developed at Toco-oco alongside Lara.
Lara continues as the head of Toco-oco, and I still create works for the brand occasionally.