Tag: brazil

Carlos Motta with Elio Miraña, ELO, Gil Farekatde Maribba, Higinio Bautista, Kiyedekago, Rosita, and Yoí nanegü at PPOW Gallery

Beautifully shot and installed in Tribeca’s PPOW Gallery, Columbian artist Carlos Motta’s ‘Air of Life’ video installation is reached by passing by sculpture crafted by Indigenous Brazilian craftsman Higinio Bautista. This particular collaboration began with Bautista’s retelling of a legend of shamans who transformed into animals to protect the people and land.  He prompted Motta to draw the figures, which Bautista then carved.  Once past the protective deities, gallery visitors take in soaring views of the Amazon while watching Indigenous South American musicians, activists, and community leaders explain their work in a c. 42 minute presentation on a screen and two monitors.  Commissioned for an exhibition related to Indigenous representation now on view at Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia in Bogota, the works in the show give insight into to the lives of those working to protect tradition.  (On view through Oct 7th).

Carlos Motta, installation view of ‘Air of Life’ at PPOW Gallery, Sept 2023. Sculpture in the foreground: Carlos Motta and Higinio Bautista, Shaman Anteater, carved wood, 43 ¼ x 15 ¾ 16 ½ inches.

Leda Catunda at Bortolami Gallery

Titled ‘Geography,’ Brazilian artist Leda Catunda’s current exhibition at Bortolami Gallery offers personal interpretations of the landscape in the form of fabric-based sculptures sourced from materials created by the fashion and decoration industries.  Here, ‘Mapa Mundi’ juxtaposes the built environment (represented by swatches of plaid) with green areas inhabited by chickens.  She adds rocks from a shoreline, a few bucolic scenes of country life and ominous patches of flame, all surrounded by flowing waters.  Zones of striped colors suggest unknown aspects of life on the planet, in Catunda’s vision, a place created by our desire to define ourselves through images and design.  (On view through Dec 23rd).

Leda Catunda, Mapa Mundi, acrylic and enamel on fabric, wood, plastic, velvet, voile, flags, rug and foam, 90 ½ x 118 1/8 inches, 2022.

Amelia Toledo at Nara Roesler Gallery

After debuting its new Chelsea gallery space with a tantalizing series of two-week long exhibitions, Brazilian gallery Nara Roesler continues to impress with a career-survey exhibition of gorgeous work by the late Amelia Toledo.  Inspired by the participatory nature of Neo-Concrete art and a devotion to nature and the possibilities of color, Toledo’s multifarious career included installations consisting of hanging jute panels like this ‘Path of color.’ (On view through April 17th. Masks and social distancing required).

Amelia Toledo, Paths of color, 38 pieces of painted jute, c. 100 x 177 x 177 inches, 1999-2000.

Maria Nepomuceno at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

A superabundance of color and curving forms characterize Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno’s ‘imaginary nature,’ as she calls her sculpture composed of woven straw, beads, ceramics and resin forms.  With direct links to the human body – beads are cells, straw references skin – the artist’s life affirming constructions celebrate nature in its eye-popping variety. (On view at Sikkema Jenkins and Co in Chelsea through April 7th). 

Maria Nepomuceno, 3 mulheres, beads, braided straw, ropes, ceramics, clay, resin and wood, 180 x 150 x 90 cm, 2017.

Cleverson Oliveira at Miyako Yoshinaga

Rainy days aren’t what they seem in Brazilian artist Cleverson Oliveira’s world. Look closely at this detail of a vine-filled, wetland landscape and the raindrops on the surface of the image transform into black and white oblong shapes resembling tiny heads with towering hairdos. (On view at Miyako Yoshinaga in Chelsea through Jan 6th).

Cleverson Oliveira, (detail of) Untitled 201, 36 x 55 inches, graphite and permanent marker on canvas, 2017.