(New York, USA)
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery receives from June 26th to July 30th, 2021, Engraved into the Body. The group show expands on the exhibition of the same name at ‘Carpintaria’, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel’s venue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2020. This first presentation of Engraved into the body by Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel was an OVR. The group show was curated by Keyna Eleison & Victor Gorgulho.
The exhibition presents the work of both emerging and established Brazilian artists in tandem with the photographic archive of the Teatro Experimental do Negro (Black Experimental Theater) (TEN), founded and directed by Abdias Nascimento (1914-2011) — a key figure in the country’s advancement of Black intellectual thought. Engraved into the Body takes part of TEN’s photographic collection as a framework and point of departure to discuss issues related to race, identity, and the body. As experiences of injustice and systemic racism have become increasingly urgent areas of cultural inquiry, this exhibition sheds much-needed light on the parallel histories of race and representation in the United States and Brazil, highlighting what both countries have in common as well as what makes their histories unique.
You can find out more about the ideas behind the works in display below (text extracted from the exhibition’s portal):
“The idea of a narrative dimension to the body permeates several works in the exhibition, particularly the photoperformances by Ana Beatriz Almeida, Antonio Tarsis, Ayrson Heráclito, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro and Carla Santana. Through different approaches, these images share the notion of self-writing made possible by the performative act and its multiple forms of documentation. […] The narrative of the body reappears in paintings by Panmela Castro and Moisés Patrício. While Castro’s works (from the Vigília series) are intimate portraits of people close to the artist, who accompanied her during a pandemic night, the characters in Patrício’s paintings reference the candomblé rituals”.
Engraved into the body counts with works by the artists Abdias Nascimento, Adriana Varejão, Agrippina R. Manhattan, Ana Beatriz Almeida, Antonio Tarsis, Armando Andrade Tudela, Ayrson Heráclito, Carla Santana, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Diambe, Efrain Almeida, Hélio Eichbauer, Herbert De Paz, Iagor Peres, Melissa de Oliveira, Moisés Patrício, Panmela Castro, Rafael José and Rodrigo Cass.
Engraved into the Body, with Abdias Nascimento, Adriana Varejão, Agrippina R. Manhattan, Ana Beatriz Almeida, Antonio Tarsis, Armando Andrade Tudela, Ayrson Heráclito, Carla Santana, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Diambe, Efrain Almeida, Hélio Eichbauer, Herbert De Paz, Iagor Peres, Melissa de Oliveira, Moisés Patrício, Panmela Castro, Rafael José and Rodrigo Cass
From June 26th to July 30th, 2021
Curated by Keyna Eleison & Victor Gorgulho
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
521 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10011
“Rubia”, from the “Vigília” series, 2020, oil on canvas, 90 x 120 x 8 cm, by Panmela Castro