Estela Sokol | Secret Forest exhibition catalogue

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Estela Sokol: Secret Forest | 10 June - 15 July 2011

‘Secret Forest’ (series), Upper Austria, 2011
photographic print on cotton paper | 110 x 165 cm

photo: Pablo Vilar, courtesy Zipper Galeria, São Paulo

The Embassy of Brazil in London, in collaboration with Zipper Galeria, proudly presents 'Estela Sokol: Secret Forest'. The show, which is the first solo presentation of the artist’s work in the UK, includes a selection of recent sculptures and installations, as well as a series of previously unseen photographs.

Part of a generation of up-and-coming artists working in São Paulo today, Estela Sokol works on the expansion of the traditional idea of the work of art as the container of colour and form – in Sokol’s work, the environment around the work of art is also charged with colour and energy, through the artist’s use of materials and manipulation of scale. According to the artist, ‘problems appear and are solved in the very act of making things’. There is no inspiration from any mysterious source, there is no creative force detached from the direct manipulation of materials, colour and light. The idea is, therefore, not simply attached to the work but is born out of it, it buds from the construction of form.

‘Ofélias’ (Ophelias), 2010 | PVC, Plexiglas | 150 x 500 x 64 cm

photo: Pablo Vilar, courtesy Zipper Galeria, São Paulo

Aesthetically, Estela Sokol belongs to a tradition of constructivism that flourished in Brazil at the end of 1950’s, in the ‘Objetos Ativos’ (active objects) and ‘Pluriobjetos’ (pluriobjects) by Willys de Castro, in the ‘Superfícies Moduladas’ (modulated surfaces) by Lygia Clark and in the research into colour pursued by Hélio Oiticica in his ‘Invenções’ (inventions), ‘Relevos Espaciais’ (spacial reliefs), ‘Bilaterais’ (bilaterals) and ‘Núcleos’ (nuclei). Coloured, semi-translucent plastics in fluoridated colours innovate the palette of Brazilian constructivism, enveloping small stretchers and overlaying fields of fluctuating colour, reminding us of the interplay between frame and surface in the work of Lygia Clark. Sokol’s series A cor é que tem cor nas asas da borboleta (It is colour that has colour on the wings of the butterfly), also included in this exhibition, is made of such objects, often no larger than15 centimetres in their largest dimension; these might even be confused with studies for larger pieces. They are, however, normally bundled in a flock covering a large wall alongside small engravings, numerous variations in the use of acrylic and plastic pieces coated with a layer of black automotive rubber, removing the possibility of shine and allowing for further research into the interaction between the colour-pigment and the colour-light.

The reduced dimensions of these objects, presented in the exhibition in great number, additionally suggest a notion of ‘lesser art’, of handicraft, whilst the repetition of the objects, that differ from each other in minute details, combined with the use of materials such as plastic, acrylic, synthetic varnish and automotive rubber coating reminds us of industrial processes. The synthesis of industrialisation, handicraft and visual arts clamours for a reading linked to Bauhaus. These objects invoke famous images of constructive art, and the way in which they are installed creates a simulation of the artist’s own studio in São Paulo, an experimental laboratory in light-colour lined with pieces that leave traces of colour on the white walls.

partial view of the artist’s studio, São Paulo, May 2011

photo: Pablo Vilar, courtesy the artist

In the exhibition are also a series of acrylic and PVC objects that create large bulging shapes that appear to come off the wall: Ofélias (Ophelias) – serialised and juxtaposed, they create a grey tunnel from which fluorescent green shines as neon light. However, it is pure colour-light pulsating in a time tunnel that transports us to other constructivist experiences. The show also includes a series of works that result from Sokol’s recent 40-day long expedition to Upper Austria, awarded through the Brasil Arte Contemporânea programme (Ministério da Cultura and Fundação Bienal de São Paulo). During her visit, Sokol captured, in photographs, traces of prosaic objects that appear to imbue the white Austrian snow with intense colour, such as in the Secret Forest series, which gives name to the exhibition. This first attempt to implant colour into a natural landscape has also resulted in the works of the series Polarlicht and Making of or Not, both of which are also included in the exhibition.

The exhibition has been made possible by support from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zipper Galeria (São Paulo, Brazil) and Galerie Wuensch (Linz, Austria).

Estela Sokol was born in 1979 in São Paulo, where she lives and works. In 2002, she graduated in Printmaking from Centro Universitário Belas Artes, São Paulo.

Recent solo exhibitions include Licht Konkret, Galerie Wuensch, Linz, Austria (2011); Clarabóia, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil (2010); Dawn for Interiors, Bisagra Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2010); Sol de Inverno, Palácio das Artes, Belo
Horizonte, Brazil (2008); Halo, Galeria Virgílio, São Paulo, Brazil (2007); Meio Dia e Meia, Centro Universitário Maria Antonia, São Paulo, Brazil (2006); Lastro, Centro Cultural São Paulo, Brazil, (2003). Future solo exhibitions include Polarlicht, Bisagra Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011) and A Morte das Ofélias, Galeria Anita Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2011), as well as a participation in the III Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia, Argentina (2011).

Selected group exhibitions: Light Art Bienalle, Linz, Austria (2010); Silêncio, Zipper Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil (2010); Trajetórias em Processo, Galeria Anita Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2009); Nova Arte Nova, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil (2009).

Awards: Brasil Arte Contemporânea, Fundação Bienal São Paulo, Brazil (2010); Temporada de Projetos Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil (2009); Edital Revelação MACC, São Paulo, Brazil (2004); Projéteis FUNARTE de Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2005) and 34° Salão de Arte Contemporânea Luiz Sacilotto, São Paulo, Brazil (2006).

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Oswaldo Goeldi | Cena Urbana exhibition catalogue

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Oswaldo Goeldi: Cena Urbana | 15 April - 13 May 2011

Céu Vermelho II (Red Sky II), c.1950 | woodcut print, 21 x 29.8cm

The Embassy of Brazil in London proudly presents Oswaldo Goeldi: Cena Urbana. The show, curated by Paulo Venancio Filho, will present a selection of 22 woodcut prints that reveal a subterranean vision of the city of Rio de Janeiro’s urban scenes and anonymous individuals by one of the greatest Brazilian modern artists.

Oswaldo Goeldi was the son of the eminent Swiss naturalist Émil Goeldi (1859-1917), one of the many scientists that Emperor Dom Pedro II was involved with during his reign. While Goeldi was studying in Switzerland during the First World War, he was influenced by the group Der Blaue Reiter and became acquainted with the works of Alfred Kubin (1877-1859), with whom he would correspond to the end of his life.

Although still not acclaimed internationally, Goeldi’s oeuvre awakens immediate interest in those that come in contact with his drawings and engravings as they reveal a singular vision of Brazil, captured through an expressionistic sensitivity, rather infrequent in Brazilian art. Goeldi was a rare case, perhaps unique, of an expressionist in the tropics.

Solitário (Lonely), c.1929 | woodcut print, 18.5 x 13.7 cm

The exhibition shows the Goeldian vision of a Brazilian reality that is quite distant from the commonplace postcard image of a mythical tropical nation. This sombre world, which Goeldi expresses through the black and white contrast of xylography, fulfils the power of a plastic idiom that matches his work to that of German Expressionists.

Brazilian modern art has recently been gaining rightful international acclaim, in particular the great constructive period in Brazilian art as illustrated by Neoconcretism and its artists. This fact is now well established and it is time to advance further and focus upon other artists that, despite pursuing differing poetics, have the same stature and importance, such as Oswaldo Goeldi. By revealing various aspects of Brazilian Modernism, which is both sufficiently original and complex, this exhibition corroborates the fact that it cannot be exhausted in a single version. Very aptly, the show follows the special nucleus dedicated to Goeldi’s work at the 29^th São Paulo Biennial (2010) and celebrates the artist in the year of the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

All works in the exhibition kindly loaned by Raul Schmidt Felippe Jr.

Silêncio (Silence), c. 1957 (post mortem print, 1971) | woodcut print, 17.8 x 24.5cm

Oswaldo Goeldi was born in Rio de Janeiro on 31 October 1895. At six years of age, Goeldi moved with his family to Switzerland, where he began school in Berne. When the First World War broke out he was a student at the Academiae Technicae Helveticae in Zurich. He joined the Swiss army, serving as a guard on the Swiss-Austrian border. After his father’s death in 1917, Goeldi enrolled in the École des Arts et Métiers, Geneva, where he studied for six months. He exhibited for the first time at the Wyss Gallery in Berne, where he had close contact with the work of Alfred Kubin, during the presentation of the Der Blaue Reiter Group.

In 1919 he returned to Brazil, and in 1926 he began to correspond with Kubin. In 1930 he visited Kubin at his home in the town of Zwickledt, Austria, and in the same year exhibited at the Gutekunst & Klipstein Gallery, Berne, and – having been recommended by Kubin – at the Werthein Gallery, where his works were displayed alongside those of Matisse and Utrillo. In 1951 Goeldi received the First National Engraving Prize at the 1^st São Paulo Biennial and in 1953 was appointed engraving professor at the School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. His work was exhibited extensively, both in Brazil and abroad. He died on 15 February 1961 in Rio de Janeiro.

Paulo Venancio Filho is an art critic, independent curator and full professor of art history at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He has published articles on modern and contemporary Brazilian artists, among them Cildo Meireles, Hélio Oiticica, Anna Maria Maiolino, Waltercio Caldas, Mira Schendel, Antonio Manuel and Fernanda Gomes. He has curated a number of exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, including Rio de Janeiro 1950-1964 in Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis (Tate Modern, 2001), Rachel Whiteread (MAM, Rio de Janeiro, 2003), Soto: A Construção da Imaterialidade (CCBB, Rio de Janeiro, 2005), Anna Maria Maiolino: Territories of Immanence (Miami Art Central, 2006), Time and Place: Rio de Janeiro 1954:1964 (Moderna Museet, 2008), Hot Spots (Kunsthaus Zurich, 2009), Wifredo Lam- Gravuras (Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, 2010), David Batchelor: Chromophilia (Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, 2010) and Sergio Camargo: Claro Enigma (IAC, São Paulo, 2010).


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Frederico Câmara exhibition catalogue

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Frederico Câmara | 15 October - 17 November 2010

Untitled (Ningbo 0413), 2009

The Embassy of Brazil in London proudly presents the first solo exhibition by Frederico Câmara in London. The show will present a group of previously unseen works resulting from the artist’s recent one-man expedition to China.

In his trip to China, supported by the British Council’s Darwin Now Award, Câmara photographed the country’s main zoos and aquariums. The expedition, which took place in the second half of 2009 and lasted 86 days, stems from a wider research project to create a World Atlas of the built environment of zoo cages, divided by regions or countries photographed. Zoos not only represent this geographical division in their own collections, but they also reflect, in their design, the “styles” or cultural aspects that are peculiar to the visual culture of the country to which they belong. Previous work for this research project was done in Germany, the UK, Romania, Canada, France, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore and Japan.

installation views

Zoological gardens have been created for the appreciation of animals and plants foreign to Europe, brought from the colonial territories that were then considered exotic to the European taste. They occupy an ambiguous position in society, as they can be seen as both a space of protection and a space of imprisonment. Protection comes from the zoos’ aim to be a place for conservation, research and education. Imprisonment derives from their early format as 'menageries', a place for exhibition of exotic species of animals meant to simply entertain the human curiosity. At the same time good and bad, this ambiguity of
function and form is a reflection of our need to care for our environment against our inability to re-create in the zoo, an environment as perfect as nature itself, or to preserve it in the wild.

By concentrating on China for this portion of his project, which despite not being a former European colony it embodies ideas of exoticism in its images, artifacts and materials, Câmara asks the question: How does a country seen as exotic respond to the idea of the exotic through the environmental reproductions in its zoos?

For the artist, the chosen medium of photography best reveals subtle patterns that relate to social as well as aesthetic peculiarities in the areas where the images are created. In Câmara’s words, ‘photography has the power to make us “re-view” a situation after it transformed it into an image. For example, no one stops at an empty cage when visiting a zoological garden, because the objective of such a visit is the contemplation of the animal. The cage is in this case just a background or stage. However, with the cage transformed into an image without the presence of the animal, the cage becomes the subject. This shift in focus from the animal to its artificial environment results in a series of observations related to science, the environment, as well as art and religion, in questioning the act of creation.’

For Câmara’s exhibition, Gallery 32 will be transformed into a projection room, where a selection of the artist’s photographs will be displayed in large-scale, recreating a space of contemplation that resonates the presence of the environments in which they were taken.

installation views

Frederico Câmara was born in 1971 in Governador Valadares, Brazil, and has lived and worked in London for the last ten years. In 1993, he graduated in Printmaking from Escola de Belas Artes (UFMG, Belo Horizonte) and in 2004 he obtained an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art, London.
Fellowships: Unesco Aschberg and Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder – Trondheim, Norway; International Research Center for the Arts, Kyoto University of Art and Design – Kyoto, Japan; La Chambre Blanche – Quebec City, Canada; Nordic Art Centre – Dale, Norway; Henry Moore Institute – Leeds, United Kingdom; Akademie Schloss Solitude – Stuttgart, Germany
Awards: Brasil Arte Contemporânea, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo – São Paulo, Brazil; Darwin Now Award, British Council – London, United Kingdom; Pavilion Commissions – Leeds, United Kingdom; Marcantonio Vilaça Award for the Visual Arts, FUNARTE / MinC – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Solo exhibitions: Gallery 32, Embassy of Brazil – London, United Kingdom; In an Ideal World, Pavilion Commissions – Leeds, United Kingdom; The Henry Moore Institute – Leeds, United Kingdom; Landscapes, Galeria Noua – Bucharest, Romania;
Selected group exhibitions: Territories of the (In)Human, Kunstverein Stuttgart – Stuttgart, Germany; New Photography: Pavilion Commissions, Djanogly Art Gallery – Nottingham, United Kingdom; 50 Years of Brazilian Art, Museum of Modern Art – Salvador, Brazil; 10° Salão da Bahia, Museum of Modern Art – Salvador, Brazil; Rumos Visuais, Instituto Itaú Cultural – São Paulo, Brazil


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LFA 2010 | Swarming Futures exhibition catalogue

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LFA 2010: Swarming Futures | 25 June - 11 August 2010

'Swarming Futures' shortlisted as one of the top 3 exhibitions in the International Architecture Showcase! Voted by a prestigious jury that included Tom Dyckhoff (The Times), Julie Lomax (The Arts Council), Sarah Ichioka (Architecture Foundation) and Catherine Ince (Barbican Art Gallery).

installation view
photo by Samantha Lee


detail of installation by João Wilbert + NaJa & deOstos
photo by Samantha Lee

The Embassy of Brazil proudly presents Swarming Futures, a selection of cutting-edge contemporary Brazilian architectural projects. Part of the International Architecture Showcase of this year’s London Festival of Architecture, the exhibition explores the Festival’s Welcoming City theme through the way innovation in design can be generated by large patchworks of inclusive collaboration and creative exchange. Recently appointed hosts of high-profile international events, most notably the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazilian cities have become an extremely fertile ground for speculation and intense scrutiny. Designers, politicians, communities, businesses, participants and visitors are all agents and stakeholders in a massive swarm of interests and possibilities that will ultimately reshape Brazil’s cities in the near future.


EXHIBITION
Curated by London-based architect Ricardo de Ostos, the exhibition explores how unique associations between mainstream and underground forces can open new fields for innovative buildings and city planning. Aiming for fresh ideas, Swarming Futures displays projects that explore trans-disciplinary and spontaneous networks between the social, economic and cultural fields. Maverick cooperation and urban experiments in and for the city are uncertain, and at times unpredictable, but fundamental to encourage social progress.

Swarming Futures brings together a cross-section of recent Brazilian architectural proposals. Selected projects include large infrastructural interventions such as the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Park, designed by BCMF, as well as local and sensitive proposals by São Paulo practice MMBB. The inventive Brazilian-French architects Triptyque display their well-known ecological projects alongside new and exciting experiments. Strengthening the speculative vein of the exhibition theme, Vazio S/A present their hyper-critical project Ultimate Skyscraper which analyses the impact of large scale commercial developments, while additional features investigate innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration in the contemporary scene of Brazilian architecture.

BCMF: Marina da Glória (sailing), Rio 2016, proposal bid image

MMBB: Antonico Creek re-urbanization (view of the main square) São Paulo, 2009/2010

Triptyque: Harmonia_57, Vila Madalena - São Paulo, 2008

Vazio S/A: Amnésias Topográficas II, Buritis Neighbourhood, 2009 Belo Horizonte

The exhibition itself is an assemblage of diverse urban elements, including already built and yet to be built projects, from individual buildings to larger city scale projects. Following the exhibition opening, there will be a symposium with invited guests from Brazil and abroad, providing an invaluable opportunity to foster new partnerships not only amongst designers but also between different welcoming cities across Brazil and the world.

SYMPOSIUM
Following the 'Swarming Futures' opening, on 26 June, there will be an all-day symposium chaired by the exhibition curator Ricardo de Ostos, with invited guests from Brazil and abroad, providing an invaluable opportunity to discuss new partnerships not only amongst designers but also between different welcoming cities across Brazil and the world. Morning session (11am-1.30pm): Guillaume Sibaud (Triptyque), Ellie Stathaki (Wallpaper*), Carlos Teixeira (Vazio S/A) and Abraham Thomas (Architecture Curator, V&A)
Afternoon session (2.30-5pm): Bruno Campos (BCMF), Eleanor Fawcett (Head of Design for Olympic Fringe, Design for London) and Marta Moreira (MMBB)
*Attendance is free, but booking is essential: gallery32@brazil.org.uk

RIBA SPEAKER'S CRESCENT
A preview of the exhibition will be presented on June 20 (10.00 - 10.40am) by Ricardo de Ostos in a special event organized by RIBA. Brazil’s optimism related to yesterday’s futures illustrated by letters from writers, explorers’ diaries, historical narratives and satirical cartoons.


Attendance is free but booking is essential: http://www.lfa2010.org/event.php?id=312&name=speaker_s_crescent_brazil
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Ricardo de Ostos: A Director of NaJa & de Ostos, a London-based studio developed as a platform for experimental architectural design, Ostos is Unit Master at the AA School of Architecture in London, director of the AA Madrid Summer School and guest professor at Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris. He is a co-author of the books The Hanging Cemetery of Baghdad (Springer, Vienna and New York) and Ambiguous Spaces (Pamphlet Architecture 29, Princeton Architectural Press).

BCMF Arquitetos: Established in 1995 by partners Bruno Campos, Marcelo Fontes and Silvio Todeschi, BCMF Arquitetos has been involved in a broad range of projects. Their practice is highly diversified in terms of scale and typology, ranging from interior design, commercial and residential buildings to large-scale projects, such as the Deodoro Sports Complex, designed for the Rio 2007 Pan American Games as well as twenty venues and facilities for the Rio 2016 candidature.

MMBB: Created in 1991 by Fernando de Mello Franco, Marta Moreira and Milton Braga, the practice has established itself through its international collaborative projects in the development of public and institutional designs. Keen to maintain a critical and analytical stance, MMBB has also extended its activities to the cultural and academic sphere by organising or participating in cultural events, exhibitions and biennials, as well as by engaging in academic activities through teaching and research.

Triptyque: Established in São Paulo (2000) and Paris (2008), Triptyque is a French-Brazilian practice run by Greg Bousquet, Carolina Bueno, Guillaume Sibaud and Olivier Raffaelli. Known for innovative projects such as the Harmonia 57 building (São Paulo), the Mediatheque in Osny and a skyscraper in Issy Les Moulineaux (France) and their participation in various Biennales, such as Venice (2008 and 2010), Hong Kong (2009) and São Paulo (2009 – 1st Prize for Constructed Buildings).


Vazio S/A: Founded in 2001 by Carlos Teixeira, the practice seeks an active role in which the city and its problems are stimuli for new projects: actions in urban voids, architectural interventions in mining areas, and landscape design in vacant plots – a vision in which informality and a lack of planning are seen as pointers towards new solutions and opportunities.

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LFA 2010: Swarming Futures Symposium | 26 June, 11am - 5pm

Following the 'Swarming Futures' opening, on 26 June, there will be an all-day symposium chaired by the exhibition curator Ricardo de Ostos, with invited guests from Brazil and abroad, providing an invaluable opportunity to discuss new partnerships not only amongst designers but also between different welcoming cities across Brazil and the world. 

Morning session (11am-1.30pm): Guillaume Sibaud (Triptyque), Ellie Stathaki (Wallpaper*), Carlos Teixeira (Vazio S/A) and Abraham Thomas (Architecture Curator, V&A)

Afternoon session (2.30-5pm): Bruno Campos (BCMF), Eleanor Fawcett (Head of Design for Olympic Fringe, Design for London) and Marta Moreira (MMBB)

*Attendance is free, but booking is essential: gallery32@brazil.org.uk

LFA 2010 | RIBA Speaker's Crescent: Brazil | 20 June, 10 - 10:40am

Swarming Futures: Ambiguities and Opportunities in Designing Brazilian Cities

A preview of the 'Swarming Futures' exhibition will be presented in the LFA 2010 Speaker's Crescent Pavilion by the curator Ricardo de Ostos in a special event organized by RIBA.

The talk will discuss the history of future visions embodied in Brazilian cities, the role of speculation and large scale urban propositions that have been embedded in Brazilian culture. From economical to political causes infrastructure has been created and deployed in distant parts of the country. Fast urbanisation aided by an unique mix of technological dexterity and DIY created a rich scene where city planning and unplanned development cope side by side. A study of different yesterday's futures experienced by Brazilian cities will be put together in relation to the current optimism surrounding the country. As part of the 'Welcoming Cities' exhibition at the Embassy of Brazil in London the talk will highlight current proposals for the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro alongside innovative architectural works by young upcoming architects. Drawing from a series of references the lecture will debate the emergence of this archaeologies of the future and their practical and ideological implications. Letters from enthusiast's writers, satirical cartoons, explorer's diaries and historical narratives will illustrate the talk.

Speaker

Ricardo de Ostos is a director of NaJa & deOstos, a London-based studio developed as a platform for experimental architectural design. He is Unit Master at the AA School of Architecture in London, director of the AA Madrid Summer School and guest professor at Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris. He is a co-author of the books The Hanging Cemetery of Baghdad (Springer Wien New York) and Ambiguous Spaces (Pamphlet Architecture 29, Princeton Architectural Press).

Useful Information:

LFA Speaker's Crescent Pavilion, Park Crescent, Westminster, London, W1B 1

20 June, 10 - 10:40am

Attendance is free but booking is essential: http://www.lfa2010.org/event.php?id=312&name=speaker_s_crescent_brazil

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice exhibition catalogue

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Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice | 5 May – 5 June 2010

‘Lâmina 2’, 2007 | glass, 220 x 250 x 6 cm

photo: Estúdio Eduardo Ortega | courtesy Galeria Fortes Vilaça

The Embassy of Brazil in London proudly presents Gallery 32’s second exhibition this year: fodasefoice, Nuno Ramos’ first solo show in the UK.

fodasefoice is the title of a group of works by Ramos, which comprise a wide variety of media: sculpture, drawing and performance. Nuno Ramos has been working on this series for a number of years, and the exhibition at Gallery 32 will include a group of especially commissioned large-scale sculptures and a video.

Resulting from simple shapes that relate closely to Brazilian Constructivism, the works in this series are infused with a symbolic charge (the sickle, a symbol of death) and yet retain their basic geometric structure. Bearing its origin in drawing, the shape of the sickle was reworked into glass sculptures, whilst the meaning of the noun ‘foice’ (sickle) was presented in a performance that involved two sound speakers, two actresses, and a large heap of hay. Thus, both of the elements that are always present in Ramos’ work – the physical body, or the matter (present in the sculptures), and meaning, or the name (which commands the performance) – seem to be dealt with side by side in this exhibition.

The sculptures, which are the main feature of this exhibition, are two giant glass sickles, leant on the wall and pierced by their own handles, which here take the shape of large glass tubes. These tubes are filled with liquids that are charged with an antagonic symbolism – petroleum and Coca-Cola. The liquids are circulated around the room by a pump that mixes them, dissolving their difference whilst they move through the sickles.

'Platão com Sol I (Cal e Leite)', 2010
acrylic, charcoal and gold leaf on paper [42 x 59.4cm]
photo by Laura Barbi


'Platão com Sol I (Cal e Leite)', 2010
acrylic, charcoal and gold leaf on paper [42 x 59.4cm]
photo by Laura Barbi


installation view
photo by Laura Barbi


detail of 'fodasefoice (fuckitsickle)', 2007-2010
blown glass, toughened glass, stainless steel, plastic hoses, pump, chalk and milk
[dimensions variable]
photo by Laura Barbi


detail of 'fodasefoice (fuckitsickle)', 2007-2010
blown glass, toughened glass, stainless steel, plastic hoses, pump, chalk and milk
[dimensions variable]
photo by Zeca Alkmim


In the performance, which appears here as a video, two actresses stand on sound speakers and reap, in slow motion, a giant heap of hay which lays in front of them, while the words ‘foda-se’ (fuck you) and ‘foice’ (sickle) are sounded. It is important to point out that ‘foice’ (sickle) and ‘foi-se’ (has gone) are homophones in Portuguese. The work, therefore, acquires a new meaning – the ridding of something which has gone, in an exorcising ritual of both death and the past.

fodasefoice, 2007 | performance | FUNARTE, Belo Horizonte

photo: artist’s archives

Nuno Ramos was born in São Paulo in 1960, where he lives and works. In 1982, he graduated in Philosophy from USP (University of São Paulo). The artist has participated in various group exhibitions: the Venice, São Paulo, Havana and Mercosul Biennials; MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), New York; MAC-USP (Museum of Contemporary Art), São Paulo; MAM (Museum of Modern Art), São Paulo; MAM (Museum of Modern Art), Rio de Janeiro; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo; Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília and Rio de Janeiro; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Fundação Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Ramos has had solo exhibitions in museums and art galleries in Brazil and abroad: MAM (Museum of Modern Art), Rio de Janeiro; Fundação Eva Klabin, Rio de Janeiro; Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro; MAM (Museum of Modern Art), São Paulo; Funarte, Belo Horizonte; Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília and São Paulo; Centro Cultural São Paulo; Galeria Anita Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro; Galeria Matias Brotas, Vitória; Silvia Cintra Galeria de Arte, Rio de Janeiro; Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo; Galeria Camargo Vilaça, São Paulo; Galeria Bernardo Marques, Lisbon; Brooke Alexander Art Gallery, New York and Pulitzer Art Gallery, Amsterdam.
In 2007, Ramos won the Grand Award from the Barnett Newton Foundation; he is also a writer and was awarded the Portugal Telecom prize in 2008 for his book Ó.

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Daniel Senise exhibition catalogue

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Daniel Senise | 19 Mar - 14 Apr 2010

detail of 'Skira', 2010
paper collage on aluminium

detail of 'Hallway', 2009
watercolour collage on aluminium, 154 x 700 cm

R. Silvio Romero, 34 DEZ/09 I, 2009

inkjet print and collage on aluminium and residue from the studio space | 158 x 150 cm each

R. Silvio Romero, 34 DEZ/09 II, 2009

inkjet print and collage on aluminium and residue from the studio space | 158 x 150 cm each
(images courtesy the artist)

The Embassy of Brazil in London proudly presents a solo exhibition by Daniel Senise, one of the major talents to have emerged from what became known as the 'Geração 80' (1980s Generation) in Brazilian painting. The artists of 'Geração 80' were part of a worldwide return to painting, a movement which took the form of Neo-expressionism in Germany, 'Transavantgarde' in Italy, and, in the United States, brought forth a large number of works of great dimensions with runny paint and with large areas of pictorial mass. Senise, though, has developed a body of work that goes much further than the issues raised during that period, creating paintings that relate directly to both history of art and architecture.

In this solo exhibition, organised in collaboration with São Paulo's Galeria Vermelho, the artist presents three recent works, all of which were finished in 2009. The title Skira was inspired by the French publisher Albert Skira, whose art books became known for the outstanding quality of their reproductions. This was achieved by the craft of printing each work individually, on small pieces of paper and then affixing them manually in his editions, creating thus a kind of album, or collection.

The emptiness left on the pages by the pictures removed by he artist has become a dynamo for Senise, instigating him to produce the Skira series, initiated in 2008. Once the illustrations were removed from the pages, a difference in the shade of the colour of those pages became visible. The collages that the artist makes with those pages exploit the chromatic gradation in order to construct façades of a building, using the books as a basis. This reminds us of the brise-soleil – a fundamental element in Brazilian Modernist architecture from the 1950s onwards, which, similarly to Skira, originated in France. In this series, Senise intermingles his relationship with history of art and with a sense of absence – present in important works such as Ela que não está (She, who is not) and Retrato da mãe do artista (Portrait of the artist's mother) – as well as with architecture, which has always been crucial in his practice.

In Hallway, Senise presents a large panel made up of 546 small watercolours, which reproduce the wooden parquet flooring in the hallway of the artist’s house in the district of Arpoador, Rio de Janeiro. This work blends two important pathways in the artist's trajectory: the painting at the beginning of his career and its relationship with floors.

'Hallway' - installation view

installation view

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