“Enredado”: a dialogue of shapes and colors between Carolina Ponte and Pedro Varela

(Viborg, Denmark)

The exhibition Enredado by the Brazilian artists Carolina Ponte and Pedro Varela captures the spectator through a web of stories, shapes, and colors. Opening on January 26, at 7pm, it will be displayed in the east wing of Viborg Kunsthal.

The Portuguese word ‘enredado’ means tangled or something caught in a web. It can be related to the word ’enredo’ meaning plot. The artists Carolina Ponte and Pedro Varela work with constructions of plots and webs and want to create works capturing the spectator in a universe of stories, shapes, colors, patterns, and materials. The exhibition is a dialogue between the works of Ponte and Varela as well as it explores the similarities and differences of their artistic research. Both artists use drawing as a central axis to develop works in other medias and they explore not only the surface but also the room. Ponte’s totemic ceramics, arabesque-like collages and crochet installations on the walls and the ceiling are inspired by ornamentation from different cultures and historic periods. The structure of Ponte’s works is both wild and cogently, and at the same time the colorful compositions effectfully frame the wall or the white negative space of the paper.

Varela is inspired by the variety of pictures and texts surrounding us nowadays. From social media to botanical illustrations, comic strips, fragments of texts and songs and then being translated to three-dimensional collages and paintings. Varela is absorbed by internal and external perspectives of the idea of ‘the tropical’ and his paintings and collages include a web of abstract shapes, historic and political references, extensive tropical vegetation, and text. Some works are monochrome – others are rich in colors.

Ponte and Varela participated in Riddergade AIR, Viborg Kunsthal’s residency program 2017. Their great knowledge of the place of exhibition makes them able to create a unique exhibition particularly adapted to the east wing of  Viborg Kunsthal. More of the works will be created and exhibited for the first time in Viborg. Afterwards the exhibition will be shown in Brazil.

The show is supported by:
Danish Arts Foundation, Obel Family Foundation, Augustinus Foundation, and Viborg municipality.

Artwork by Carolina Ponte