Sérgio Camargo was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1930 and died in the same city in 1990. One of the foremost Brazilian sculptors of the twentieth century, he developed a distinctive approach to geometric abstraction, exploring relationships between light, shadow, volume, rhythm, and space through sculptural reliefs and monumental works in wood, marble, and bronze.

Camargo studied at the Academia Altamira in Buenos Aires with Emilio Pettoruti and Lucio Fontana, and later pursued philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he encountered the ideas of Gaston Bachelard and artists including Constantin Brancusi and Jean Arp. In 1963, he began his celebrated white reliefs, assembling precisely cut cylindrical wooden modules into rhythmic compositions that transform geometric structures into dynamic interactions of light and shadow. His later sculptures, particularly those carved in Carrara marble, expanded this research into three-dimensional forms, combining constructive rigor with intuition and organic sensibility.

He received the International Sculpture Prize at the Paris Biennale in 1963 and the National Sculpture Prize at the 8th São Paulo Biennial in 1965. His international career included the Venice Biennale (1966), documenta IV in Kassel (1968), and major public commissions such as the monumental sculptural wall for the Palácio Itamaraty in Brasília and Homenagem a Brancusi in Bordeaux, France.

His works are held in major institutional collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Tate, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio).

Through his innovative treatment of geometric form, light, and materiality, Camargo established a fundamental position within Brazilian and international modern sculpture, bridging Constructivism, Minimalism, and the expressive possibilities of abstraction.