Renata Lucas
29 Jun - 26 Aug 2007
RENATA LUCAS
June 29-August 26, 2007
Using basic building materials (plywood, bricks, concrete), Renata Lucas manipulates urban spaces and architecture to intensify the tension between inside and outside, public and private, past and present. Lucas' practice is a critical interpretation of how our built environment determines actions, behavior and social relationships, and by extension, society's dependency on the preservation of prescribed definitions of space, property and order. In her work, Lucas imagines a space where these barriers break down, where the possibility of deconstructing these boundaries--through even as simple a symbolic gesture as tearing down a wall--might result in a different social dynamic. By offering an alternative spatial imagination, one that brings into consideration malleability, manipulation and play, Lucas provokes the possibility of new subjective and collective engagement within our built environment.
For her recent contribution to the São Paulo Biennial, Quick Mathematics, Lucas installed a city block of sidewalk pavement, curb and streetlights on top of the existing sidewalk, a subtle but concrete gesture of doubling that necessitates a consideration of the architecture of urban street--one that promotes informal assembly, pedestrian transit, and unexpected obstacles, coincidences and pleasures. As Lynn Zelevansky states in her essay for the exhibition catalogue: "Lucas is fascinated by the makeshift nature of Brazilian construction, the way buildings are adapted and then readapted until they no longer have a functional logic. The narrow slice of street in Quick Mathematics brought to consciousness the process by which São Paulo's built environment has evolved, and the cafe that was integrated into it revealed the manner in which Brazilians themselves adapt, making the best of the situation."
For REDCAT, Lucas will present a site-specific installation that reconfigures, alters and distorts the existing configuration of the exhibition space. The exhibition is accompanied by a color catalogue that documents the artist's work and includes writings by REDCAT associate curator Clara Kim and Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Lynn Zelevansky, as well as an interview with the artist by curator and critic Adriano Pedrosa.
Born in 1971 in Ribeirco Preto, Brazil, Lucas has had solo exhibitions at the Galeria Millan Antonio in Sco Paulo, A Gentil Carioca in Rio de Janeiro, Castelinho do Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro, Pago das Artes in São Paulo and Museu de Arte da Pampulha in Belo Horizonte. She participated in the 27th Bienal de Sco Paulo in 2006. This year, she will be included in exhibitions at Encontro de Medellmn, Colombia; the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami; and the Tate Modern, London. Lucas received her BFA and MFA at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Lucas lives and works in São Paulo.
June 29-August 26, 2007
Using basic building materials (plywood, bricks, concrete), Renata Lucas manipulates urban spaces and architecture to intensify the tension between inside and outside, public and private, past and present. Lucas' practice is a critical interpretation of how our built environment determines actions, behavior and social relationships, and by extension, society's dependency on the preservation of prescribed definitions of space, property and order. In her work, Lucas imagines a space where these barriers break down, where the possibility of deconstructing these boundaries--through even as simple a symbolic gesture as tearing down a wall--might result in a different social dynamic. By offering an alternative spatial imagination, one that brings into consideration malleability, manipulation and play, Lucas provokes the possibility of new subjective and collective engagement within our built environment.
For her recent contribution to the São Paulo Biennial, Quick Mathematics, Lucas installed a city block of sidewalk pavement, curb and streetlights on top of the existing sidewalk, a subtle but concrete gesture of doubling that necessitates a consideration of the architecture of urban street--one that promotes informal assembly, pedestrian transit, and unexpected obstacles, coincidences and pleasures. As Lynn Zelevansky states in her essay for the exhibition catalogue: "Lucas is fascinated by the makeshift nature of Brazilian construction, the way buildings are adapted and then readapted until they no longer have a functional logic. The narrow slice of street in Quick Mathematics brought to consciousness the process by which São Paulo's built environment has evolved, and the cafe that was integrated into it revealed the manner in which Brazilians themselves adapt, making the best of the situation."
For REDCAT, Lucas will present a site-specific installation that reconfigures, alters and distorts the existing configuration of the exhibition space. The exhibition is accompanied by a color catalogue that documents the artist's work and includes writings by REDCAT associate curator Clara Kim and Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Lynn Zelevansky, as well as an interview with the artist by curator and critic Adriano Pedrosa.
Born in 1971 in Ribeirco Preto, Brazil, Lucas has had solo exhibitions at the Galeria Millan Antonio in Sco Paulo, A Gentil Carioca in Rio de Janeiro, Castelinho do Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro, Pago das Artes in São Paulo and Museu de Arte da Pampulha in Belo Horizonte. She participated in the 27th Bienal de Sco Paulo in 2006. This year, she will be included in exhibitions at Encontro de Medellmn, Colombia; the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami; and the Tate Modern, London. Lucas received her BFA and MFA at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Lucas lives and works in São Paulo.