Preaoca, Brazil, 1954.
Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.
Luiz Hermano studied Philosophy in Fortaleza. He started to work and experiment, in a self-taught way, with metal engraving and drawing, and then incorporated painting and sculpture into his production. The popular universe is a reference for his production, that dialogues with the tradition of engravings and cordel literature from the Northeast of Brazil. In certain works, he also explore formal possibilities related to the hand-made production of utensils of his birth state, Ceará.
Luiz Hermano: metal and freedom
by Katia Canton, 1997
Luiz Hermano uses links of bronze, aluminum, stainless steel and copper as raw materials, which are then put in series, organized, subverted, twisted and put together. The result is organic and metallic tapestries, which bloom from the floor, the ceiling, in the corners and climb the walls swallowing the physical space, with powerful and surprising formal and conceptual dialogues.
Hermano does not identify himself with any particular school or movement, thus it is difficult to classify his work. He is an artist of synthesis. His current production consist of two principal ingredients: metal and freedom. Urban and regional, radically contemporary and conscious of the importance of the tradition, he combines all of his experience and composes a group of works which evoke with precision and originality “the spirit of contemporary age”.
Inorder to perceive this, one only needs to look at his cubes, made in series which repeat themselves, being connected with wires and hinges, which although geometric, seem to be organic and although stationary, seem to suggest and incorporate movement. Conscious of detailed, abstract heritage, his works, in fact, are a pure subversion of geometry. Forming networks of irregularities of volume, the shapes fit together, line up, they form chains which swing from side to side. They form screens of floating space, becoming moving fabric that is organized in an illusory way.
Manipulating geometry until it becomes flexible and tactile, Luiz Hermano’s constructions explore a serial sculptured form to the point that their most rigid aspects dissolve, and conceptually, they become a type of story.
One is not dealing with a story woven with narrative thread, having a beginning, middle and end. In the art 01 this last century, after the heritage left by abstraction and readymade, telling a story is full of all these legacies, incorporating in them an altitude turned to meaning, the content, the cross-cut weights, which bloom from the very arrangement of forms constructed by the artist’s hand.
Therefore, in his abstract, metallic, almost geometric sculptures, Hermano articulates the formation of “cross-cut narratives.”
When his shapes, based on squares, circles, cones, triangles and linked, intertwined and twisted, even to the point of losing their original shape, they tend to gradually assume sensuous marks of the human body and a variety of other objects. The artist does not avoid these associations. On the contrary, he injects into his works, titles which incite symbolic, personal, intimate connections.
Torso, for example, made of a tailoring of solid square copper pieces, looks like medieval armor, alluding to strength, solidness and sensuality. Ali the Women of the World is a cape made of bronze mesh which creates curves in the air. They rise and fall, forming cones of various heights and densities. Tracing an imaginary topography, the cones suggest female breasts, relating them to sensations of abundance and serenity. Necklace, in stainless steel, made of hollow squares, has the aggressive flexibility of a chain placed around a human neck.
Although they have no real motor capacity, Luiz Hermano’s sculptures contain a potential for constant movement. They ask the spectator about their most flexible, movable aspects. They ask to be manipulated. They play with thought, opposing what they are in the visible moment with what they could be in the most subjective projections.
In the school of material, the artist is an alchemist. Metal, a conductor of energy, establishes an allusion to technology, while at the same time, being in counterpoint with the organic forms suggested. In the exercise of transmutation of form, the metal becomes the pure gold of the artist.
Composing laced, brilliant series which become absolutely individual bodies, Hermano contrasts geometry and “organicity”, immobility and flexibility, abstraction and narration, without these apparent antagonisms becoming truly contradictory. It is because, in a sophisticated strategy, all these characteristics are articulated with fluency, composing a materialistic reflection about the possible out folding of all things. Luiz Hermano begins with chaos, which involves any set of possibilities and through his work, proposes a world of a new organization.
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2016
– “Espinheiros Ex-votos”. Galeria Murilo Castro, Belo Horizonte, MG
– “Geometria Invertida”. Galeria Lume, São Paulo, SP
2015
– “Rede de Memórias”. Galeria Amparo 60, Recife, PE
– “Volta ao Mundo/O Apanhador de Grãos”. Prêmio Funarte de Arte Contemporânea, Belo Horizonte, MG
2014
– “O batedor e a concha desenhos e objetos”. Galeria Paralelo, São Paulo, SP
– “Ter e Ser”. Roberto Alban Galeria de Arte, Salvador, BA
2013
– “Perfis”. Luciana Caravello Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
2012
– “Tramando Mundos”. Fundação Edson Queiroz, Fortaleza, CE e Galeria Amparo 60, Recife, PE
2010
– “Rede Concreta:Trama Orgânica”. Galeria Arte em Dobro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
– “Rio de Contas”. Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, SP
2009
– “Extinto”, Amparo60 Galeria, Recife, Brazil.
– “Falso Brilhante”, Galeria Referência, Brasília, Brazil.
2008
– “Templo do corpo”, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, Brazil.
– “Templo do corpo”, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, Brazil.
2005
– Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil.
2003
– Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil.
2002
– Adriana Schmidt Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany.
2001
– Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil.
2000
– Galeria Referência, Brasília, Brazil.
– “MAM- Nestlé”, Museum of Modern Art (MAM SP), São Paulo, Brazil.
– Valu Oria Galeria de Arte, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2017
– “Modos de Ver o Brasil: Itaú Cultural 30 anos”. Oca, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Evoé”. Galeria Amparo 60, Recife, Brazil
2016
– “Núcleos Contemporâneos IV”. Valu Oria Galeria de Arte, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Gravuras: poéticas e técnicas diversas mostra do acervo”. Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
– “Clube da Gravura. 1986 até 2016”. Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2015
– Bienal Tridimensional Internacional do Rio. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2014
– “Escola com arte: uma experiência nos fins de semana”. Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil
– Prêmio Marco Antônio Vilaça. Sesi/Senai, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2013
– “Play”. Museu Bispo do Rosário Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Percursos”. Museu de Sorocaba MAC, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Aproximações Contemporâneas”. Roberto Alban Galeria, Salvador, Brazil
– “Cotidiano na Arte”. Torre Santander, São Paulo, Brazil
– “XVII Unifor Plástica”. Espaço Cultural Universidade de Fortaleza, Brazil
2011
– Coleção Banco Itaú. Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Nova Escultura Brasileira”. Caixa Cultural. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Imagens que povoam o sonho”. Elf Galeria Belém, Brazil
– “Proposição”. Galeria Luciana Caravello, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2010
– “Puras Misturas”. Pavilhão das Culturas Brasileiras, São Paulo, Brazil
2009
– Bienal do Vento Sul. Curitiba, Brazil
– Era Uma Vez…Arte Conta Histórias do Mundo. Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil
2008
– “Poéticas da Natureza”, MAC USP, São Paulo, Brazil.
– “Arte pela Amazônia”, MAC Ibirapuera, São Paulo, Brazil.
2007
– “80/90 Modernos pós-modernos etc – Modernos e Pós Modernos”, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil.
2006
– “Volpi e as heranças contemporâneas”, MAC-USP, Brazil.
2005
– “MACO – México Arte Contemporânea”, Mexico City, Mexico.
– “5º Edição Bienal do Barro”, Memorial da América Latina, São Paulo, Brazil.
– “Discover Brazil”, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany.
2004
– “A Pintura Reencarnada”. Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Faxinal das Artes”. Curitiba, Brazil
– “O orgânico em colapso”. Valu Ória Galeria de Arte, São Paulo, Brazil
2002
– “Faxinal das Artes”. Curitiba, Brazil
– “O Orgânico em Colapso”. Valu Ória Galeria de Arte, São Paulo,Brazil
– “The Thread Unravelled”. Malba, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2001
– “O Fio da Trama”. Museo del Barrio, Nova York, USA
– “I Simpósio Internacional de Escultura do Brasil”. Brusque, Brazil
– “Caminhos da Forma”. Sesi-Museu de Arte Contemporânea da USP, Brazil
2000
– “Final do Milênio: os anos 90 no Acervo MAM”. Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil
– “Obra Nova”. Museu de Arte Contemporânea da USP, Brazil
Collections:
– Fundação Marcos Amaro, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
– Palacete das Onze Janelas, Belem, Pará, Brazil
– Coleção Assis Chateaubriant, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
– Coleção Patricia Cisneros, Caracas, Venezuela
– Biblioteca Nacional de Paris, França
– Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
– Masp, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
– Museu de Arte Brasileira, Faap, São Paulo, Brazil
– Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
– Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil
– Mac, Recife, PE, Brazil
– Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, SP, Brazil
– Mac/Ufc, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil
– Mac, Curitiba, PR, Brazil
– Instituto Cultural Itaú, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
– Casa da Gravura, Fundação Nacional, Curitiba, PR, Brazil
– Museu da Gravura da Cidade de Curitiba, PR, Brazil
– Metrô de São Paulo, Estação República, Brazil
