Exhibition "Paintings" – Andrea Brazil

The artist Andrea Brazil opens his first solo exhibition “Paintings”, curated by Shannon Botelho in the exhibition space of SuperUber, in the Gamboa neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro.

In “Paintings”, Andrea Brazil presents around 55 works in small and large formats, both polychromatic and monochromatic. The monochromatic works mark a new path in her recent production. In these works, by using a single color, the artist seeks to expand the relationships with painting. This approach, unprecedented in her career, led her creations to expand in scale, filling the studio space and involving the artist in an immersive way in the chromatic experience.

“What we see in this exhibition deals with a set of unique experiences of Andrea Brazil’s interaction with her surroundings, or rather, with her own life. Far beyond a solipsistic production practice, the artist developed a particular interest in colors, vivid pigments and shapes that, despite tending towards a rigid geometry, narrate the process and memory of each work”, states Shannon Botelho in the curatorial text that accompanies the exhibition.

For the artist, painting is an exercise in deep connection with her memories, the places she lives in, and the reality around her. Born in Santos (SP), Andrea grew up in Salvador (BA), and as an adult, she moved to São Paulo (SP), where she lives and works, but she defines herself as a Bahian. Thus, her process of observation and memory has Bahia as a starting point, through the seascapes of the island of Itaparica, in the Bahian Recôncavo. “My work is about building spaces using colors from around the world. I think about the light of Bahia, I think about temperature. It is a painting that has layers, texture, smell, and flavor, like a street fair or a Bahian tray,” says the artist who sees her painting as a “good conversation” with popular art.

His artistic research spans different fields, but color always stands out as an essential element, in addition to the living pigments and geometry captured from everyday scenes. “I seek to (re)construct the world (spaces), organizing the colors that inhabit it. It is a way of synthesizing what I see, saving the forms. Only what is absolutely necessary remains in the painting”, he defines. His paintings tell more complex stories: they narrate the process and memory intrinsic to each work, revealing layers that transcend the surface.

“Whether it’s the mooring of sails on boats, painted oars, handicrafts, facades of old houses in Bahia, or, in São Paulo, skyscrapers, cars, avenues, houses being demolished, the encounters of streets and people, all the elements define and identify the places that affectionately become essential to his practice and experience of painting. For this reason, through visual research, he returns to each fragment of the image-memory and operates a plastic readjustment in its forms and colors as if, by condensing the image, he could make it even more vigorous and effective”, says the curator.

Brazil’s works challenge the viewer to adopt an active gaze, seeking to unveil something that is never fully revealed. “Each work returns to the world a cluster of sensations and memories. The abstraction of real forms that the artist collected from her surroundings are arranged in elaborate formal arrangements and delicately prepared for our contemplation. The atmosphere of color, which existed only within the paintings and was always fundamental to the execution of any image, in the artist’s poetry becomes an area of ​​projection and pulsation of color in real space.”

The artist often works with series of small formats, where the works develop simultaneously, creating a relationship of brotherhood between them. Some pieces, in fact, only reach their full expression when seen together, revealing an aesthetic interdependence. “The works, small or large, together or individually, monochromatic or multicolored, not only make up a sharing of the experience of painting with the public, but above all a possibility of actively experiencing the present”, concludes Shannon.

ALCHEMIST OF COLOR

In the artist's work, color occupies a central place, being the starting point and the point of transformation throughout her creative process. Inspired by her daily interactions with light and the environment around her, the artist translates these visual experiences onto the canvas, where color gains new layers of meaning and intensity. Her interest in hues goes beyond the act of observation, expanding during the act of painting, where the initial color, captured in a ray of sunlight or a detail of nature, can transform as the process progresses. “I am permeated by a color from the world, I take it to the studio and it serves me to construct the work”, reveals Andrea.

Technique is an essential ally in this dialogue with color. Oil paint, which predominates in her work, and egg tempera, an ancient technique that fascinates her, contribute to the vivacity and intensity of the colors in her creations. Andréa emphasizes that in tempera, the pigment is presented in a “naked” form, revealing a chromatic purity that deeply captivates her. Furthermore, the act of preparing her own paints and canvases reinforces her procedural nature, comparing it to the artisanal work in the kitchen, where care and time between the elements lead to the final result.

Service
Exhibition | Paintings
From September 26th to October 12th
Thursdays and Fridays, from 17pm to 19pm, Saturdays, from 15pm to 18pm