A painting of a cockroach in vivid shades of brown applied in fast brushstrokes over a dense grayish background, ironically titled “Boas Vindas” (Welcome), greets visitors to the exhibition space. They, at this point, have already passed by a strange round fossil-like sculpture made of cement covering an old issue of a National Geographic magazine, one in a series of eight pieces created with objects bought at the “shopping-chão,” an informal street market in Rio de Janeiro where garbage collectors sell, among the articles they gather, what they consider of value, in an economical and social process of re-signification.
Bruno Drolshagen, “Rato”
Bruno Drolshagen’s (b. 1987, Rio de Janeiro) first exhibition in São Paulo, “Buraco” (Hole), very much like these objects, is constantly re-signified, gaining new meanings with each consideration. The artist’s option for figuration might rouse in the viewer an itch for narrative closure. Yet, the fragmentary character of the works, some of them alluding to a collage-like composition, eludes any attempt at it, despite a consistency in the compositional style of the thirty-two paintings exhibited, all created in oil on linen and dating from 2015. The traditional and elegant installation muffles, at first, the multiplicity of voices—from the artist, from mass media, from art history and other iconographies—echoing inside the exhibition space, a sound that becomes louder and less distinct the longer we linger.
As many artists from his generation, Drolshagen transits freely among technical and visual repertoires from different artistic movements. In several interviews and statements, he mentions that one of his interests in oil painting lays in the opposition between the fugacity of the impressions he receives from the world and the slow studio work through which he expresses such fleeing stimuli: an egg, a biblical image, a tree branch, a famous painting by an equally famous contemporary artist, a smiley—with no hierarchy between them. Drolshagen seems free from rationalism’s organizing fury. Constant movement stops any order from solidifying, any reading from becoming final. At this show, you must give up on the idea of certainty in favor of the ambiguity of multiplicity.
“Bruno Drolshagen: Buraco” Through January 16, 2016 Blau Projects Rua Fradique Coutinho 1464, São Paulo
Caroline Carrion (1986) is a São Paulo-based curator and art critic. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Sao Paulo, where she is currently pursuing a second degree in philosophy, after having studied management et communications intercuturelles at Université Paris IV (Sorbonne). Caroline has been working in the art field since 2008 in different segments of the market, such as cultural centers, museums and art galleries. She has developed and coordinated the production of exhibitions, integrated publishing projects on contemporary art and has extensive experience with cultural journalism and institutional communication. In 2015, she curated “Eccoci!,” an urban-intervention project by artist Berna Reale held in public areas of scarce touristic access in Venice, during the opening and closing weeks of the 56th Venice Biennale; and was one of the emergent guest curators of the Prêmio CNI SESI SENAI Marcantonio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas. She is the author of texts for exhibitions and artists books, presented in Brazil and abroad; and is a member of the PIPA prize 2016 Nominating Committee. She regularly writes for Newcity Brazil, and collaborates with the contemporary art platform My Art Guides. Contact: [email protected]
Art Appreciation: Ricardo Ohtake on the Success of Instituto Tomie Ohtake's First Twenty Years On November 27, award-winning architect Ruy Ohtake passed away at the age of eighty-three. Twenty years ago, on November 28, 2001, São Paulo witnessed the opening of the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, one of the 300 eye-catching projects designed by the eldest son of legendary dame of Brazilian art, Tomie Ohtake, which includes the Brazilian Embassy in Tokyo and the gardens…
Double the Fun with Tangerina Bruno: Galeria Kogan Amaro Raises Funds for NGOs With Exhibition Amigo Secreto 2020 has been a bizarre year with an uncomfortable stew of feelings. The December exhibition of Galeria Kogan Amaro spreads a message of hope through its group exhibition “Amigo Secreto” (Secret Santa). The entire proceeds will go to two São Paulo-based humanitarian non-governmental organizations, Childhood Brasil, aimed at protecting socially vulnerable children and teenagers, and Pimp My Carroça, involved with…
The Digital Art Fair: São Paulo’s SP-Arte Goes Virtual The year of 2020 has brought big art-fair business, with online viewing rooms as a permanent feature to boost in-person fairs—hopefully back next year—with the futuristic hybrid likely to reshape gallery and museum viewing from now on. Until COVID-19 dashed in, causing seismic social shift, art fairs, like São Paulo’s SP-Arte, were still being staged according to a pattern devised…
Inside the Minds of Artists: The 34th São Paulo Bienal Forges Ahead The pandemic having twice postponed the original February 2020 opening date, the 34th São Paulo Bienal finally goes ahead September through December. With free entry, the event showcases over 1,000 works by ninety artists from 132 countries spread in its 30,000-square-meter pavilion. This year’s edition comes expanded, through a collaborative network of exhibitions on display in twenty-five cultural venues, to…
