Notes related to Brasil

This is one of the unique moments of the most recent contemporary art in Brazil. The final tracking shot of Olho da Rua, a video by Jonathas de Andrade now on display at Inhotim, one of Brazil's leading visual arts centers, is one of those happy moments in which the artist manages to capture with such precision the zeitgeist of his country (in this case, on a continental scale).

With the recent exhibition by Rosario López, Tapizar el Paisaje, Marli Matsumoto's gallery received and sheltered a strong artistic expression that, through apocalyptic tapestries and photographs of recent industrial history, tells the story of how the landscape is shaped, built or destroyed. In this interview, the founder of the gallery in São Paulo delves into the bases that gave life to the gallery and her interest in providing a space for young artists and experimental contemporary art.

From Body to Code at ZKM (Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe) will gather, for the first time in Europe, the most representative pieces of her artistic trajectory.

The largest exhibition ever dedicated to the work of Judith Lauand, with more than seven decades of production.

The 13^th edition of the Mercosul Biennial, anchored in the Trauma, dream and flight tripod and finished last November, had encouraging developments, especially due to the outstanding presence of emerging artists, the strong contact with the public and the resumption of powerful spaces and traditional attractions of the event, such as the Cais do Porto. However, there were problems in the organization of the exhibition, the most serious episode of which was the '(dis)invitation' of names to exhibit works, and a certain frustration with pieces that would have a technological appeal.

The first solo exhibition in the United States of the afro-brazilian artist Arthur Bispo. Co-curated by Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Ricardo Resende, and Javier Téllez, with Tie Jojima.

The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) presents Political/Subjective Maps: Anna Bella Geiger, Magali Lara, Lea Lublin, and Margarita Paksa. It will explore how these four visionary Conceptual artists have appropriated the visual language of maps to highlight entrenched power structures; mine social, political, emotional, and personal subjects; and imagine new ways of apprehending the world.

The Board of La Biennale di Venezia appointed Adriano Pedrosa as Director of the Visual Arts Sector, with the specific task of curating the 60th International Art Exhibition to be held in 2024 (from April 20^th to November 24^th).

The exhibition Madalena Santos Reinbolt: una cabeza llena de planetas (A head full of planets) is the first solo exhibition of the Brazilian artist at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo.

MALBA presents a panoramic exhibition by Anna Maria Maiolino (Scalea Italy, 1942) with more than fifty years of works that include paintings, drawings, woodcuts, sculptures, photographs, videos, sound pieces and installations in an attempt to capture the prismatic spirit of the artist.

Painting as the basis and as a problem, affective bonds and forms of unlearning. These are some of the themes that outline the exhibition "A Slow Coming - Chapter I", a new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) in Niterói, Brazil.

Including works by artists such as Panmela Castro, Antonio Obá, the duo Barbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca as well as Jonathas de Andrade, the exhibitions unpack and update issues brought up in the newspaper "Quilombo", published by Abdias Nascimento from 1948 to 1950.

Somewhat fused forms, in a dismantling that seems continuous, signaling a kind of tired geometry. The banal brilliance of a chromatic automotive cover in what could have been the label of a crumbling and volatile language typical of large urban agglomerations, in a tenuous cross between street art and graffiti.

On the bicentennial anniversary of Brazil Independence, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) presents the collective exhibition Brazilian Histories, proposing a critical reflection on the country’s history seen through an plural perspective.

The 35th edition of the São Paulo Biennial, the largest contemporary art exhibition in Latin America, will take place in 2023 and the Fundação Bienal launched the first curatorial text. CHOREOGRAPHIES OF THE IMPOSSIBLE presents the key concepts and ideas.

Since September, Fernanda Lopes is the new Artistic Director of the Brazilian art gallery Athena. She will be in charge of several actions such as exhibition projects, public talks, publications, accompaniment of the represented artists and innovative and experimental research initiatives. 

Geraldo de Barros is, without a doubt, one of the Brazilian artists most studied by contempora- neity. Over the course of his artistic career he pioneered the path of multidisciplinarity, develop- ing his work consistent with not only his own research, but also with the Brazilian political and social contexts and with Brazilian art history. To celebrate these historical developments, the Ar- quivo Geraldo de Barros and Luciana Brito Galeria are presenting the exhibition Objetos-Forma [Objects-Form], which features never-before-shown works that recover a fundamental moment in Geraldo de Barros’s career. The show opens on August 9 and occupies all the gallery’s exhibi- tion spaces.

Celebrating the work and legacy of the writer Clarice Lispector (1920-1977), the IMS brings the exhibition Constelação Clarice. An investigation into the poetics of the author, curated by Eucanaã Ferraz and Veronica Stigger, the exhibition brings together approximately 300 pieces, including manuscripts, photographs, letters, records, press materials and other documents.

In this exhibition, photographs from Brazil turn to the constructions of national identity and culture based on the photographic collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition presents around 270 works by 120 artists, produced from 1860 to the present. It also includes a commissioned work by Rio de Janeiro-based visual artist Aline Motta, and a revival of her installation Filha natural.

An institution that is more attentive and permeable to public debate, that has its own collection as a living witness to the changes. This could be one of the guiding axes of the work of the Venezuelan Julieta González at the head of the artistic direction of Inhotim, one of the main centers of contemporary art in Brazil and one of the most inspiring open-air museums in the world.

Framer Framed in Amsterdam exhibits The Silence of Tired Tongues. Curated by Raphael Fonseca, the show presents the works of thirteen emerging artists born in Brazil. The artworks in the group exhibition bring together a sense of ‘saudade’, which can be translated as a mixture of melancholy and longing.

The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is dedicating the first comprehensive solo exhibition to the Brazilian avant-garde artist Lygia Pape (1927–2004) until July 17, 2022. Titled “The Skin of ALL” the exhibition presents the artist’s multifaceted, transgressive oeuvre, which she developed over five decades. 

Review about the exhibition Into the Great Dying: (The Steps We Take), on view until June 2022

Exhibited at the Spcrates Sculpture Park, in collaboration with Projeto Hélio Oiticica and Americas Society. Titled Subterranean Tropicália Projects: PN15 1971/2022, this immersive environment is the first realization of a never-before-executed idea by the late Brazilian artist.

On the occasion of the centenary anniversary of the 1922 Modern Art Week, a key event for the artistic avant-gardes in Brazil and which consolidated what would become known as modernism in the country, several exhibitions throughout the year (and also in 2021) revolved around, discussed, explained, replaced and 'cancelled' such an initiative. Considered a milestone in the cultural renewal of Brazilian art, the week was about to turn around in its already canonical grave.

Pinacoteca de São Paulo presents Adriana Varejão: Sutures, Fissures, Ruins, a retrospective exhibition by Adriana Varejão (Rio de Janeiro, 1964). Curated by Jochen Volz, the museum’s general director, the show proposes a narrative that highlights the diversity and complexity of her production.

The exhibition VUADORA presents for the first time in a Brazilian institution a great overview of the work of Paulo Nazareth, one of the most important artists of his generation. The exhibition, curated by Fernanda Brenner and Diane Lima, includes a combination of approximately 180 iconic works from the last two decades - such as the series Cadernos de África and the collection Produtos do Genocídio - and works specially commissioned for the occasion.

Reluctantly classified, with increasing complexity and interest, the work of Maria Martins (1894-1973) has yet to gain recognition in her native country. But a selection of some 50 pieces, on display in Rio de Janeiro through June, should help reposition the sculptor, draftswoman and engraver in the pantheon of leading Brazilian artists.

The fair takes place from April 6th to 10th at the Bienal Pavilion in Ibirapuera Park, reaffirming its leading role in the arts market and bringing together around 130 galleries, nine of which are international.

The outcome of photographic expeditions in Brazilian Amazonia carried out from the late 1990s onward, but mostly between the years 2013 and 2019, the exhibition Amazônia, by Sebastião Salgado, is arriving at Sesc Pompeia, in São Paulo, Brazil, in the month of February.