Exhibition “Improbable Encounters”, by Ricardo Stambowsky

A collector of stories and artifacts acquired over the years, each filled with sentimental value. Ricardo Stambowsky He has built his own repertoire, which he now reveals in a facet previously known only to his closest circle of friends.Unlikely Encounters"will present the public with previously unseen collages, curated by a long-time friend." Vanda KlabinIt opens on July 22nd at the Patricia Costa Gallery for a short season.

Known for his career as a master of ceremonies, Ricardo has always cultivated an intimate relationship with imagery, including forays into the visual arts: he attended Ivan Serpa's classes at MAM and life drawing classes with Waldir Damásio. His artistic vein finally manifested itself. Initially produced as gifts for close friends, his collages were born spontaneously, without any exhibition intentions. Over time, however, the continuous exercise of cutting, shifting, and recombining elements revealed an original language marked by associative freedom and the construction of unexpected visual narratives.

In the works gathered for the exhibition, seemingly disconnected elements come together in surprising compositions. The result is images that move between memory, poetry, and imagination, offering the viewer multiple possibilities for interpretation.

“I work a lot with old French and English magazines, from 30, 40 years ago. I used to buy publications weekly, some about aristocracy, others about interiors. Initially, I cut them out and make videos even before putting together a collage. I choose a main image that appeals to me most and complete it with others that may or may not be related, but mostly within things that I like. They can be chosen by color, by shape, and I create the imagery. The names are born after the ideas are organized: Light of Time, La Dona, Majesty, The Comet, La Reina, The Ruby, Nijinsky… I can stay up late working on a composition to finish it, even in the middle of the night. It's an entirely pleasurable activity for me,” says Ricardo Stambowsky.

The 25 works presented in small and medium-sized acrylic boxes stem from the encounter between distinct universes, like a bricolage. Human figures share space with architectural references, symbols of visual culture, and images extracted from different historical contexts, with some references to the monarchy. When removed from their original meanings and inserted into new contexts, these fragments come to inhabit poetic territories, where chance and imagination play a fundamental role.

For Vanda Klabin, the collection reveals a production that escapes rigid classifications. “Ricardo Stambowsky starts from a new aesthetic vocabulary that guides and determines his personal choices and will also compose his infinite collages. He establishes a dynamic of forms and colors, a true mosaic of elements that are present in his imagination. Cutting and pasting became a procedure integrated into his daily life, transforming heterogeneous fragments, found in old magazines, now cut out, superimposed or juxtaposed on triple cardboard, until they are transformed into a unitary totality, creating a new iconography. There is a time of idyllic encounter with the cut-out image, like an object of desire that evokes family memories, which will realign themselves within an unpredictable order or in disorder with their logical trajectory, as they acquire a new identity,” says the curator and historian.

Ricardo Stambowsky is from Rio de Janeiro and is 78 years old. On his father's side, he is the grandson of Russians who emigrated to Salvador during the Bolshevik Revolution. His mother was from Pernambuco, from a family of the sugarcane aristocracy. A graduate in Law from the Brazilian Faculty of Legal Sciences and in Journalism from the City Faculty, he has been married to Sueli Pittigliani for 53 years. As a lawyer, he worked in the family's construction company and as a journalist for various magazines, newspapers, and television programs. In the 80s, he owned a very successful dance club in Juiz de Fora. However, the visual arts have always been a part of his life. He attended Ivan Serpa's classes at the MAM (Museum of Modern Art) and life drawing classes with Waldir Damásio. A master of ceremonies and organizer of parties and events for 40 years, his artistic side prevailed, and now he passionately dedicates himself to creating collages using clippings from old magazines he has collected throughout his life.

Service
Exhibition | Unlikely Encounters
From July 22th to August 01th
Monday to Friday, from 11 am to 19 pm; Saturdays, from 11 am to 17 pm.