Marepe
26 Mar - 02 May 2009
© Marepe
Chorinho detail, 2009
Spools of thread, plastic coated wire and metal
Variable
AK# 6894
Courtesy Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Chorinho detail, 2009
Spools of thread, plastic coated wire and metal
Variable
AK# 6894
Courtesy Anton Kern Gallery, New York
MAREPE
“Discompleto”
March 26 – May 2, 2009
February 25, 2008, New York—Marepe’s show entitled “Discompleto” works like a song: it captures body and soul before any meanings of words can penetrate our mind, before we discover the origin of the singer, before we analyze the instrumentation. For his second solo show at Anton Kern Gallery, Brazilian artist Marepe assembled a group of eight sculptures that are made of everyday materials and found objects, many inspired by popular music.
“Discompleto,” a word play on disc (disco) and complete (completo), is bound by no limits of origin or language. It speaks (or rather sings) – just like the materials the artist uses – of everyday life and love, celebrating and elevating the specific origin of the work to the general, the regional source to universal meanings. As the title suggests, “Discompleto” allows for a direct reading, and furthermore, perhaps most importantly leads towards a sensory experience, an intimacy of touch and interaction, equivalent to the immediate and deeply emotional experience of listening to music. Marepe’s work has evolved from a deep connection with the local traditions, customs, and materials of Bahia, the Northeastern region of Brazil. He employs the specificities of his environmental milieu, and safeguards them as memory. While using everyday materials and activities, his work acquires a complex layering of references and meanings addressing the linkage between the individual and society. The appropriation, deployment, and dislocation of the object are the artist’s points of departure as he searches for new modes of signification. Marepe overcomes the notion of periphery vs. center, of romanticism vs. poverty, to establish what he calls a “sensorial communication that leads to the understanding of the work.”
Born Marcos Reis Peixoto 1970 in San Antonio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil, Marepe lives and works in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. The artist has participated in various group exhibitions including NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, The Menil Collection, Houston; PS1, Long Island City; Miami Art Museum, Miami (2008/09); An Unruly History of the Readymade, Jumex Collection, México; When Lives Become Form: Contemporary Brazilian Art: 1960-Present, Museum of Contemporary Art of Tokyo (both 2008); Alien Nation, ICA, London; 27th Bienal de São Paulo; 15th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (all 2006); Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture, Barbican Art Gallery, London; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Museu de Art Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2005/06); How Latitudes Becomes Forms: Art in a Global Age, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; the Istanbul Biennial (all 2004). Recent solo exhibitions include Veja meu Bem, Tate Modern, London; Espelho, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo (both 2007), and Vermelho Amarelo Verde Azul, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2005);
“Discompleto”
March 26 – May 2, 2009
February 25, 2008, New York—Marepe’s show entitled “Discompleto” works like a song: it captures body and soul before any meanings of words can penetrate our mind, before we discover the origin of the singer, before we analyze the instrumentation. For his second solo show at Anton Kern Gallery, Brazilian artist Marepe assembled a group of eight sculptures that are made of everyday materials and found objects, many inspired by popular music.
“Discompleto,” a word play on disc (disco) and complete (completo), is bound by no limits of origin or language. It speaks (or rather sings) – just like the materials the artist uses – of everyday life and love, celebrating and elevating the specific origin of the work to the general, the regional source to universal meanings. As the title suggests, “Discompleto” allows for a direct reading, and furthermore, perhaps most importantly leads towards a sensory experience, an intimacy of touch and interaction, equivalent to the immediate and deeply emotional experience of listening to music. Marepe’s work has evolved from a deep connection with the local traditions, customs, and materials of Bahia, the Northeastern region of Brazil. He employs the specificities of his environmental milieu, and safeguards them as memory. While using everyday materials and activities, his work acquires a complex layering of references and meanings addressing the linkage between the individual and society. The appropriation, deployment, and dislocation of the object are the artist’s points of departure as he searches for new modes of signification. Marepe overcomes the notion of periphery vs. center, of romanticism vs. poverty, to establish what he calls a “sensorial communication that leads to the understanding of the work.”
Born Marcos Reis Peixoto 1970 in San Antonio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil, Marepe lives and works in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. The artist has participated in various group exhibitions including NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, The Menil Collection, Houston; PS1, Long Island City; Miami Art Museum, Miami (2008/09); An Unruly History of the Readymade, Jumex Collection, México; When Lives Become Form: Contemporary Brazilian Art: 1960-Present, Museum of Contemporary Art of Tokyo (both 2008); Alien Nation, ICA, London; 27th Bienal de São Paulo; 15th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (all 2006); Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture, Barbican Art Gallery, London; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Museu de Art Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2005/06); How Latitudes Becomes Forms: Art in a Global Age, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; the Istanbul Biennial (all 2004). Recent solo exhibitions include Veja meu Bem, Tate Modern, London; Espelho, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo (both 2007), and Vermelho Amarelo Verde Azul, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2005);