"When it come to art, the Brazilians know what they like..."

Amazing article by the The Independent from the UK. 

"When it comes to art, the Brazilians know what they like... Lots of it"

Paraísos Artificiais de Marcos Prado

In the Northeast of Brazil, during an art and music festival, 3 people come together. From the director of "Estamira", Marcos Prado, and the producers of "Trope de Elite I & II". 

I can't wait to see it. April 27th it will open in all theaters in Brazil. 

Artificial Paradises (?)

It was shot during 7 weeks in Recife, Rio de Janeiro and Amsterdam. 

I found a making-off, but in portuguese.

Nelson Leirner, Assim É Se Lhe Parece

After the small research I did on Nelson Leirner, (whom I couldn't even pronounce the name) - I fell in love. I hope to meet him!

I'm going to confess: I had seen some of his art, but I never knew who it belonged to, and I could never put a face to the name. Now I can!

I didn't watch the documentary, but I read a bit about this artist in Vogue Brasil, and on the same day, I went to see his exhibition at Fiesp. My favorites are the monkeys, or even better, the FEMALE monkey with the lipstick. Although, I have to say: its not his ART that I fell in love with, its his CHARACTER, his HUMOR, his irony.

Who am I to talk about art? But I don't care, that's why I'm researching, reading, learning. Back to our subject...

Nelson Leirner was born in Sao Paulo, January 16th (Capricorn), 1932. He lived in the Unites States for years, and said he went to watch a lot of theatre, and never to museums. But his parents made him go for art.

He uses strategic strategies to create questions in people, even if he ends up causing strange feelings. He is considered to be one of the most polemical artists, and wants to popularize the "object of art" and introduce the participation of the audience.

"Art, while still being art, it has no end."

Louise Bourgeois: "o retorn do desejo proibido"

This Sunday, In Sao Paulo, I had the pleasure to see the work of Louise Bourgeois in Instituto Tomie Ohtake, that will be exhibiting until August 28th. "The return of the prohibited desire" would be the exact translation. 

I went, without doing my research, and not knowing much about what I would see. I knew about the "Maman", her huge spider sculpture, but that was about it.

"I have been to Hell and back and let me tell you it was wonderful."

Her Story:

Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris, December 25th (Capricorn), 1911. She had a big childhood trauma: discovering her English governess and nanny was also her father's mistress. Eventually, all her traumas and tensions triggered her creative impulse. 

Bourgeois' parents owned a gallery that dealt with tapestries, and she would fill in designs that would become worn. She studied math & geometry at the Sorbonne (used to be the University of Paris), but when her mother died in 1932, she abandoned math to study art. 

Her father, whom she'd always disliked since the incident with her nanny, obviously didn't support her decision. She said he would always tease her, dominate the household and he had an explosive temper. 

She would write all her memories in her diary, since she was a little girl. The Ecole de Beaux-Arts was Bourgeois' next school, and she turned to her father's infidelities for inspiration. 

"Art is a guarantee of sanity. That is the most important thing I have said."

Bourgeois opened a print shop next to her father's tapestry shop/gallery, where her soon-to-be husband, Robert Goldwater [art historian], one day came in asking for a print of Pablo Picasso. She soon got married and went to New York City. She could not conceive, so she adopted her first child, but soon gave birth to her other two children. 

"I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands."

Profession: Fine Artist/Feminist

Influences: Surrealism, primitivism, and modernism

(Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brancusi)

Work: Abstract, symbolic, autobiographical

Themes: 

1. Childhood trauma & hidden emotions (anxiety and loneliness)

2. Architecture & memory (betrayal)

3. Sexuality & fragility (women, and human figures)

"Once I was beset by anxiety but I pushed the fear away by studying the sky, determining when the moon would come out and where the sun would appear in the morning."

"Art is manipulation without intervention."

Cells.

"Bourgeois stated that the Cells represent “different types of pain; physical, emotional and psychological, mental and intellectual… Each Cell deals with a fear. Fear is pain… Each Cell deals with the pleasure of the voyeur, the thrill of looking and being looked at.”

During the 50's she made the transition from would and other upright structures to marble, plaster and bronze. 

In 1982, she received her 1st retrospective at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). 

In 2010, she used her art to speak up for the LGBT equality, and soon died in New York City. She finished all her work one week before her death.

Death: Heart failure.

Maman

::: The exhibition I saw was beautiful, her art expresses her feelings and transmits it to the audience. I felt her anxiety, her claustrophobia, and her hatred towards her father. 

This woman was beautiful and fragile, and her art work had to be huge, involving whoever wants to be in it (literally). 

My favorite quote from her:

"CLAUSTROPHOBIA AND OMNIPOTENCE

I WANT THEREFORE I CAN

I CAN BUT I'M AFRAID

I'M AFRAID THEREFORE I LIVE."

Alessandra Duarte @ Zipper Galeria

Para quem estiver em Sao Paulo, nao deixem de ir ver a Alessandra Duarte na Zipper Galeria. Ja falei sobre ela nesse blog, sera imperdivel e super merecido! Ah! Se eu estivesse em Sao Paulo!

Quando: 30 de Abril - 22 de Maio

Aonde: ZIPPER: R. Estados Unidos, 1494

Alessandra Duarte é graduada em Artes Plásticas e História da Arte pela Bard College, Nova York (2007). Em 2008 participa de mostras coletivas na A.I.R Gallery e Soho20 Gallery, em Chelsea, NY. Retorna ao Brasil em 2009 e é selecionada para mostra coletiva do Programa de Exposições 2011 do Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto (MARP) e para a exposição itinerante, Até Meio Quilo, tendo seu trabalho exibido na Pinacoteca de Santos, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas (MACC), Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Jataí (MAC), e o Museu Eugênio Teixeira Leal (Salvador), entre outros.

Ale em seu Atelier, Sao Paulo, SP, Janeiro 2011




A Zipper: Zipper é a nova galeria de São Paulo, focada em novos artistas. Conduzida por uma equipe que há décadas atua no sistema da arte brasileiro, Zipper quer apresentar a arte de quem ainda não é conhecido: detectar o novo quando ele estiver brotando.


Na minha opiniao, sem exageros, a melhor galeria de Sao Paulo!

"Before Breakfast" Directed by Moema Umann

BEFORE BREAKFAST was accepted and will be screened at the SHORT CORNER @ CANNES FESTIVAL. I had the pleasure to be a part of this project, and I would like to share a bit of it with you.

Moema Umann is the type of person whom anything she touches will turn out to be successful. She does it with passion, and she does it with love and commitment.

ABOUT: 

--- Alfred Rowland finds himself trapped by an unaware life of self destruction. His tormented wife, emotionally and physically, reminds him in order to face what he has created. Alone in his room, will he discover the answer? ---

TRAILER:

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT: 

Many years ago I worked on the one act play “Before Breakfast” by Eugene O’Neill. On this play we see only a woman on the stage and we know, through her words, that her husband Alfred is in the other room. During the whole play we never see him, we just imagine him. As she speaks and points out their personal problems, we get to understand that Alfred is hung over, waking up, getting dressed and shaving in the bedroom. And that is all the information we get from her about what he is doing in the other room. As the action happens, at the end, again, only through her words and actions, we assume that he just killed himself.

While working on the play it was Alfred’s character that always intrigued me the most.  I kept asking myself, what was this man doing while his wife was talking restlessly? How miserable his life could be? Why he never answered her, not even once? Etc. This question also resonated a lot with my own personal life. Being a suicidal survival (that is how people who lost a loved one to suicide is called) I felt the necessity of bringing the theme up. There is still a big taboo around this subject, no ones talk about it. Now looking back, I wished somebody would have talked to me about how to cope with it. Having all that in mind, I decided to do the opposite of what Eugene O’Neill brilliantly did.  On this movie I show only Alfred’s point of view of the situation. On the movie we only hear her, we never see her. And throughout her lines, we see what is happening to him in the bedroom. Differently to the play, on this movie version we never see her, we just imagine her. It is very important to make clear that this film is not based or inspired on Eugene O’Neill’s idea of what happens to Alfred. Even though we hear the words he wrote, Ms. Rowland doesn’t mention what he is doing in the room throughout the whole time of the play, and personally, I do not believe it is fair to assume that what I imagined he was doing in the room is also what O’Neill would have had imagined for him. And by choosing not to show her, and choosing just to hear her how Alfred hears her, we only understand a less deep facade of her character, what is also not what Eugene O’Neill shows on his brilliant play with all the details that can be explored. Saying all that, I strongly affirm that this movie is purely telling a story of a man fighting his personal battles, in the way he sees his situation at that specific morning after all he put himself through.

To achieve that idea, the camera plays different roles on this production. At some moments it is an observer, sometimes it is his eyes, sometimes his memories and at last it is an emotional commentator about how the story ends.  

Moema Umann

For More Info Visit: BEFORE BREAKFAST
Press Kit will be available on the website, soon.

Wasteland

:: Directed by Lucy Walker

Wasteland took about 3 years to be shot. This inspiring Documentary is about the "catadores", people who collect trash in Jardin Gramacho, in Rio de Janeiro. Vik Muniz, photographer, decided to help them by photographing them, and putting all the photos in auctions, in order to raise money for their community. 

I haven't seen it yet, just the trailer. But it looks unbelievable and I can't wait to watch it.

I just made a phone call to Cinema Village, in New York City, to find out until when they would be playing, and they informed me that they extended it til next week. 

WASTELAND is playing in New York til Thursday, February 17th. Worth watching it!!!

Trailer: 

Poster:

Felipe Morozini

I found out about Felipe Morozini some months ago. I went to Pinta Art Show, and discovered Zipper Galeria located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Felipe's photography called my attention. He has a certain "voyeuristic" style, and that intrigues me. 

A couple of days ago, since I'm visiting Sao Paulo, my home city, I went to Zipper to see their new exhibition. Talking to the owner, I told him what attracted me in photography, and I love, when women are subjects or themes. He told me he had a picture I would love, and showed me this one below. 

Bico, Photograph by Felipe Morozini (c)

I can't forget this picture. It's as simple as that. Every time I talk about art or photography, this picture comes to my mind.
Obviously, the subject is not looking at her wallet, or herself in the mirror, she is looking back at the voyeur, or so I believe. Felipe was able to capture in perfect timing, a very sexual part of her body, and while the wall covers another one.
I love the colors, the framing, the story behind the picture. And this is for sure, one of my biggest inspirations.
Below, you can find some other of his photographs. 

 Both Photographs above: "Untitled" by Felipe Morozini (c)

Click HERE to see his Flickr.

Alessandra Duarte

Alessandra Duarte, what can I say? 

Whoever knows her, knows her talent as well.

She is that kind of person, that inspires. You watch her draw, or paint, and you get into trance - wishing you had that gift. 

Ale, graduated from Bard College with a BA in Studio Arts and Art History. Her work is fantastical-abstraction, influenced by Klimt, with the use of blue/green tones.

Some of her other influences are: Lucian Freud, Janaina Tschape, Rothko, Paul Gauguin,  Matisse, and Peter Doig.

I'm not the best person to "criticize" paintings, so I'm going to stop right here. I'm just so happy she can finally show her work to the world!!!

Below are some of my favorite paintings for her recent work.