Lino Arruda

Campinas – SP, 1986

Lino Arruda is a transmasculine researcher, artist, and graphic novelist. He holds bachelor’s degrees in Visual Arts from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and Universidade Politecnica de Valencia (Spain), a master’s degree in Art History from the University of São Paulo (USP, with a FAPESP scholarship), as well as a Ph.D. in Literature from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSC) / University of Arizona (CAPES/FULLBRIGHT scholarships). In the latter, he developed his thesis on travesti/trans self-representation in Latin-American zines. Along with other authors from his community, he runs the distributer “Fracassando: Edições Precárias” [“Failing: Precarious Editions”] – an autonomous and collaborative project of production, archive, translation and distribution of Latin-American dissident zines, focusing on travesti/trans authorship.

In 2021, his graphic memoir “Monstrans: experimentando horrormônios” [“Monstrans: trying horrormones”] was awarded by the Rumos Itaú Cultural grant and published in three languages. Currently, he is developing the graphic novel series “Cisforia: o pior dos dois mundos” [“Cisphoria: the worst of both worlds”] about gender dystopias and transfuturisms. The project was selected by the PROAC grant and will be published in 2022. 

In his graphic novels, watercolors, and prints, Lino Arruda weaves bridges between transgenderness, disabilities, and animalities through monstrous figurations. The corporealities represented in his work hybridize discourses on sex, gender, and ableness through the interspecies trope, which evokes the tranimal potential of dissident becomings that challenge the nature/culture dialectics and other of human beings’ identity pillars.

Lino Arruda has taught many workshops in Brazil and abroad (US, Mexico, Paraguay) about storytelling and zines. He has participated in academic publications and has been a guest lecturer in many symposiums and conferences, speaking about the representation of travesti/trans identity in Latin American zines. His artistic and cultural creations have been shown in exhibitions, of which some of the most recent are: “Artistic InQUEERies”, at the University of Arizona, USA (2019); “Banca de Quadrinistas” of Itáu Cultural, in São Paulo (2018); “Textão” at Museu da Diversidade [Museum of Diversity] in São Paulo (2018).

Artworks:

“Monstrans” (2017). Drawing on paper. Dimensions: 19,5cm x 15 cm.

Panel from the book “Monstrans: experimentando horrormônios” [“Monstrans: trying horrormones”] (2017). Dimensions: 29,7cm x 21 cm.

“Sem Título” [“Untitled”] (2020). Watercolor. Dimensions: 20,5cm x 14,3 cm.