Iole de Freitas was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 1945, and lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. A leading figure in contemporary Brazilian sculpture, her multidisciplinary practice since the 1970s spans sculpture, installation, photography, video, printmaking, performance, and explorations of body and space. Initially engaged with experimental film, photography, and conceptual practices in Milan, London, and New York, she later developed large-scale sculptures and installations using stainless steel, polycarbonate, copper, glass, wire, and translucent materials. Her work explores movement, transparency, gravity, tension, and bodily perception, dissolving boundaries between drawing, sculpture, and architecture through structures that contrast rigidity and fluidity, weight and suspension, light and reflection.

She has participated in the Venice, São Paulo, and Mercosul biennials, as well as exhibitions at MAM Rio, MAM São Paulo, Paço Imperial, Instituto Moreira Salles, Fundação Iberê Camargo, MAC Niterói, and CCBB. Her works are held in major collections including MAM Rio, MAM SP, MAC USP, MAC Niterói, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, the National Museum of Fine Arts, Museu de Arte da Pampulha, and MACRS.