(Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
The exhibition “Aparição” (Apparition) gathers at the Galeria Athena Contemporânea thirteen artists: Adriano Amaral, Ana Paula Oliveira, André Griffo, Bruno Baptistelli, Daniel de Paula, Debora Bolsoni, Flora Leite, Frederico Filippi, João Loureiro, Jorge Soledar, Matheus Rocha Pitta, Raquel Versieux and Wagner Malta Tavares.
Altogether there are about 20 pieces, between object, video, performance, photography and intervention, that make up the artists’s recent productions, from 2006 to 2014. Most of these works will be presented for the first time in Rio and some were made specially for this show.
Curated by Fernanda Lopes, the exhibition “Aparição” reveals some possibilities to think about sculpture in contemporary art production. Some works in the show deal, for example, with the tridimensional question (basic element in definition of the classic idea of sculpture), letting go of classic materials in this media (like stone, wood or clay), of the work procedures (carving, fusing, shaping) and their conventional relation, distanced with the world. Others give up tridimensionality and of the static structure, thinking of sculpture through photography, video and performance. There are also works that are part of direct references of the history of sculpturing such as Brancusi, Man Ray and Michelangelo.
The title of an attributed quote by the Renaissence sculptor Michelangelo about his work process and role as artist: “In each marble block I see a statue; I see it so clearly as if it is in front of me, shaped and perfect in position and effect. I only have to hew down taper the gross walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to other eyes as mine already see it”. The word apparition is connected to the present (of being seen, making visible, to show oneself), the past (in the sense of origin, principle) and also as a sinonym for ghost, vision or spectre.
Based on this title, it is possible to think of the presented set of works at Galeria Athena Contemporânea as a reflection of the fact that the artists are no longer dealing with sculpture making, nor the way the world was for the classic masters, but still, their works resemble the idea of “apparition”. Many come from objects and ordinary actions that are invisible in our everyday loves, and to which the artists draw attention to.
“Aparição”, collective show with Ana Paula Oliveira, Debora Bolsoni, João Loureiro, Matheus Rocha Pitta and Wagner Malta Tavares
Visiting from 21st March to 19th April
Mon – Fri, 11am to 7pm
Sat from 12am to 6pm
Galeria Athena Contemporânea
Av. Atlântica, 4240 – L211 . 22070-900
Shopping Cassino Atlântico
Copacabana – Rio de Janeiro
T: 55 21 2513 0239
Email: contato@athenacontemporanea.com