In Lines and Realignments
26 Jun - 28 Aug 2013
IN LINES AND REALIGNMENTS
Curated by Luiza Teixeira De Freitas and Thom O’Nions
26 June – 28 August 2013
Simon Lee Gallery is proud to present In Lines and Realignments, a group exhibition curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas and Thom O’Nions.
The exhibition brings together the work of six artists currently living and working in São Paulo along with documentation of a work by Brazilian conceptual artist Cildo Meireles. The exhibition's starting point is Meireles' work O Sermão da Montanha: Fiat Lux (The Sermon on the Mount: Let There Be Light), which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1979 as a twenty-four hour performance event. This piece consists of a mirrored basement room with floor covered in sandpaper, on the sandpaper sits a pile of 126,000 matchboxes watched over by a group of security guards. On the surfaces of the mirrors are phrases taken from the Sermon on the Mount, as described in the Gospel of Matthew. The work lies somewhere between a sculpture and a performance. The key to the work is its potential for activation, its latent sense of precariousness and imminent transformation.
The exhibition gathers a set of works around these ideas of suspended action, artwork that exists on the cusp of change or transformation. The works in the exhibition embody ideas of performance whilst simultaneously remaining fixed.
Marcius Galan's practice involves the construction of installations, objects and videos that deal with ideas of geometry and balance, often using this as a way of framing social, political and economic conditions. His work in the exhibition consists of a site specific installation of nails in the wall that produces a diaphanous construction of light and shadow, hovering between presence and absence. This oscillation between light and shadow also occurs in Nicolas Robbio's work in which a projection of a window blind occupies a section of the wall, an imaginary threshold that is both an image and a physical presence in the room.
The presence of the viewer and their movement within the exhibition space is a key concern of Roberto Winter. His work in the exhibition consists of a scaled down model of a section of the room, containing a prism that reflects and refracts the light and space around it.
Carla Zaccagnini's work addresses our interaction with the world, extending the exhibition to the streets surrounding the gallery. The work proposes a different form of attention to street signs, finding moments of unintended meaning through removing letters from the street names. The piece is anchored in the gallery with a wall text and the viewer invited to take away a set of stickers for altering the nearby signs, re-imagining the texts of the city.
Adriano Costa's work deals with the physicality of the world, animating materials to reveal a shared physical quality with the viewer. These ideas also circulate within André Komatsu's practice. His work deals with a sense of measurement, how we construct systems of understanding and of quantification to help us deal with a disordered and ultimately chaotic world.
Adriano Costa
b. 1975 in São Paulo, Brazil Lives and works in São Paulo
Recent solo exhibitions include Crisis Doesn’t Matter If You Love Me at Galeria Nuno Centeno, Porto, 2012 and Plantation at Mendes Wood, São Paulo, 2012. His work was included in April at Sadie Coles, London, 2013
Marcius Galan
b. 1972 in Indianapolis, USA Lives and works in São Paulo
Recently had the solo exhibition Imóvel/Instável at Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, 2011. He was included in the 8th Mercosul Bienal, Porto Alegre, 2011 and in the 29th São Paulo Bienal, Há sempre um copo de mar para um homem navegar, 2010. He is currently part of Gasworks International Residency Programme, London and won the Pipa Prize, Rio de Janeiro, 2012.
André Komatsu
b. 1978 in São Paulo, Brazil Lives and works in São Paulo
Recent exhibitions include Corpo Dócil at Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo and O Abrigo e o Terreno. Arte e Sociedade no Brasil at Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro. In 2012 he was shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize with an exhibition at PinchukArtCentre, Kiev. The Future Generation Art Prize@Venice2013 is currently on view at Palazzo Contarini Polignac, in concurrence with the Venice Biennale.
Cildo Meireles
b. 1948 in Rio de janeiro, Brazil Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro
Recent solo exhibitions include self-titled exhibitions at Palacio e Velázquez, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid 2013; Rio OIR, 10th Edition of Projecto Ocupação, Itaú Cultural Center, São Paulo, 2011, MUAC – Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, 2009, and Tate Modern, London 2009
Nicolas Robbio
b. 1975 in Mar Del Plata, Argentina Lives and works in São Paulo
Recent solo exhibitions include A força é limitada pela necessidade at Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, 2012 and La Razón del Equilibrio at Nueveochenta Arte Contemporâneo, Bogotá, Colômbia, 2011.
Roberto Winter
b. 1983 in São Paulo, Brazil Lives and works in São Paulo
Recently had the solo exhibition Ambiguações at CCBB - Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro. Recent group exhibitions include PIESP 2011-2012 at the Instituto Cervantes, São Paulo, 2012 and The State of the Art at Galeria Elba Benítez, Madrid.
Carla Zaccagnini
b. 1973 in Buenos Aires, Argentina Lives and works in São Paulo and Berlin
Recent solo exhibitions include Elements of Beauty at Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, 2012 and Plano de Falla at Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporaneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Recent group exhibitions include Para além do Arquivo at CCBNB - Centro Cultural Banco do Nordeste, Fortaleza, Brasil, 2012 and the Bénin Biennale, Cotonou, Bénin 2012.
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Thom O’Nions
b. 1985 in Bath, UK
Lives and works in London
Thom O’Nions is a curator, writer, and co-director of Supplement (www.supplementgallery.co.uk). He is part of the ongoing Sound Spill project with Haroon Mirza and Richard Sides, which had recent manifestations at Seventeen, London and with the Zabludowicz Collection in New York. Other recent exhibitions include A man is walking down the street... at Cristina Guerra, Lisbon (2012); The Exact Weight of Lightness at Travesia Quatro, Madrid (2012); and A Threepenny Opera at S1, Sheffield (2011).
Luiza Teixeira de Freitas
b. 1984 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Lives and works in London and Lisbon
Luiza is an independent curator and works as Development Organiser for the Chisenhale Gallery, London. She also works as a curator with private collections, is actively involved with artists’ books and independent publishing projects, and is co-curator of ARCO ́s 2014 opening programme in Madrid. Recent exhibitions include Damián Ortega: Apestraction at Freud Museum London (2013); A man is walking down the street... at Cristina Guerra, Lisbon (2012); and The Exact Weight of Lightness at Travesia Cuatro, Madrid (2012).
Curated by Luiza Teixeira De Freitas and Thom O’Nions
26 June – 28 August 2013
Simon Lee Gallery is proud to present In Lines and Realignments, a group exhibition curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas and Thom O’Nions.
The exhibition brings together the work of six artists currently living and working in São Paulo along with documentation of a work by Brazilian conceptual artist Cildo Meireles. The exhibition's starting point is Meireles' work O Sermão da Montanha: Fiat Lux (The Sermon on the Mount: Let There Be Light), which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1979 as a twenty-four hour performance event. This piece consists of a mirrored basement room with floor covered in sandpaper, on the sandpaper sits a pile of 126,000 matchboxes watched over by a group of security guards. On the surfaces of the mirrors are phrases taken from the Sermon on the Mount, as described in the Gospel of Matthew. The work lies somewhere between a sculpture and a performance. The key to the work is its potential for activation, its latent sense of precariousness and imminent transformation.
The exhibition gathers a set of works around these ideas of suspended action, artwork that exists on the cusp of change or transformation. The works in the exhibition embody ideas of performance whilst simultaneously remaining fixed.
Marcius Galan's practice involves the construction of installations, objects and videos that deal with ideas of geometry and balance, often using this as a way of framing social, political and economic conditions. His work in the exhibition consists of a site specific installation of nails in the wall that produces a diaphanous construction of light and shadow, hovering between presence and absence. This oscillation between light and shadow also occurs in Nicolas Robbio's work in which a projection of a window blind occupies a section of the wall, an imaginary threshold that is both an image and a physical presence in the room.
The presence of the viewer and their movement within the exhibition space is a key concern of Roberto Winter. His work in the exhibition consists of a scaled down model of a section of the room, containing a prism that reflects and refracts the light and space around it.
Carla Zaccagnini's work addresses our interaction with the world, extending the exhibition to the streets surrounding the gallery. The work proposes a different form of attention to street signs, finding moments of unintended meaning through removing letters from the street names. The piece is anchored in the gallery with a wall text and the viewer invited to take away a set of stickers for altering the nearby signs, re-imagining the texts of the city.
Adriano Costa's work deals with the physicality of the world, animating materials to reveal a shared physical quality with the viewer. These ideas also circulate within André Komatsu's practice. His work deals with a sense of measurement, how we construct systems of understanding and of quantification to help us deal with a disordered and ultimately chaotic world.
Adriano Costa
b. 1975 in São Paulo, Brazil Lives and works in São Paulo
Recent solo exhibitions include Crisis Doesn’t Matter If You Love Me at Galeria Nuno Centeno, Porto, 2012 and Plantation at Mendes Wood, São Paulo, 2012. His work was included in April at Sadie Coles, London, 2013
Marcius Galan
b. 1972 in Indianapolis, USA Lives and works in São Paulo
Recently had the solo exhibition Imóvel/Instável at Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, 2011. He was included in the 8th Mercosul Bienal, Porto Alegre, 2011 and in the 29th São Paulo Bienal, Há sempre um copo de mar para um homem navegar, 2010. He is currently part of Gasworks International Residency Programme, London and won the Pipa Prize, Rio de Janeiro, 2012.
André Komatsu
b. 1978 in São Paulo, Brazil Lives and works in São Paulo
Recent exhibitions include Corpo Dócil at Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo and O Abrigo e o Terreno. Arte e Sociedade no Brasil at Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro. In 2012 he was shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize with an exhibition at PinchukArtCentre, Kiev. The Future Generation Art Prize@Venice2013 is currently on view at Palazzo Contarini Polignac, in concurrence with the Venice Biennale.
Cildo Meireles
b. 1948 in Rio de janeiro, Brazil Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro
Recent solo exhibitions include self-titled exhibitions at Palacio e Velázquez, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid 2013; Rio OIR, 10th Edition of Projecto Ocupação, Itaú Cultural Center, São Paulo, 2011, MUAC – Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, 2009, and Tate Modern, London 2009
Nicolas Robbio
b. 1975 in Mar Del Plata, Argentina Lives and works in São Paulo
Recent solo exhibitions include A força é limitada pela necessidade at Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, 2012 and La Razón del Equilibrio at Nueveochenta Arte Contemporâneo, Bogotá, Colômbia, 2011.
Roberto Winter
b. 1983 in São Paulo, Brazil Lives and works in São Paulo
Recently had the solo exhibition Ambiguações at CCBB - Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro. Recent group exhibitions include PIESP 2011-2012 at the Instituto Cervantes, São Paulo, 2012 and The State of the Art at Galeria Elba Benítez, Madrid.
Carla Zaccagnini
b. 1973 in Buenos Aires, Argentina Lives and works in São Paulo and Berlin
Recent solo exhibitions include Elements of Beauty at Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, 2012 and Plano de Falla at Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporaneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Recent group exhibitions include Para além do Arquivo at CCBNB - Centro Cultural Banco do Nordeste, Fortaleza, Brasil, 2012 and the Bénin Biennale, Cotonou, Bénin 2012.
--------------
Thom O’Nions
b. 1985 in Bath, UK
Lives and works in London
Thom O’Nions is a curator, writer, and co-director of Supplement (www.supplementgallery.co.uk). He is part of the ongoing Sound Spill project with Haroon Mirza and Richard Sides, which had recent manifestations at Seventeen, London and with the Zabludowicz Collection in New York. Other recent exhibitions include A man is walking down the street... at Cristina Guerra, Lisbon (2012); The Exact Weight of Lightness at Travesia Quatro, Madrid (2012); and A Threepenny Opera at S1, Sheffield (2011).
Luiza Teixeira de Freitas
b. 1984 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Lives and works in London and Lisbon
Luiza is an independent curator and works as Development Organiser for the Chisenhale Gallery, London. She also works as a curator with private collections, is actively involved with artists’ books and independent publishing projects, and is co-curator of ARCO ́s 2014 opening programme in Madrid. Recent exhibitions include Damián Ortega: Apestraction at Freud Museum London (2013); A man is walking down the street... at Cristina Guerra, Lisbon (2012); and The Exact Weight of Lightness at Travesia Cuatro, Madrid (2012).