Angelo Venosa, “Untitled,” 2022, wood, fabric, resin and fiberglass, 39.4″ x 68.1″ x 32.7″/Photo: Flavio Freire and Nara Roesler
In a video from almost ten years ago, Angelo Venosa is contemplating a bird skull he found on the sidewalk. He holds it up for the camera. “It’s seductive, and there’s a clear fascination due to the complexity of this structure. It’s such a delicate thing!” The Brazilian artist, who passed away two years ago, had found his voice in sculpture. Part of Geração 80 alongside other artists such as Daniel Senise and Beatriz Milhazes, Venosa’s work strikes the perfect balance between small and delicate, large and monstrous.
Upon entering Nara Roesler in New York, Angelo Venosa’s sculptures stand out in their shapes and sizes. At once organic and artificial, each made in a unique shape, the creamy cocoon-like sculptures that take up the space in the first part of the gallery are made of wood, fabric and fiberglass. Vik Muniz, the curator, noted that Venosa’s work is often reminiscent of bodily shapes. After seeing the video of how much he admired the bird skull, his work seems to elevate the already beautiful shapes found in the natural world. The bodies he is inspired by are the bodies of trees, bones—the vessels that carry living things and remain when the latter is gone.
Angelo Venosa, “Untitled,” 2017, wood, fabric and rubberized paint, 71″ x 39″ x 6″/Photo: Flavio Freire and Nara Roesler
In the back of the gallery, there is a low table with a mix of small 3D-printed sculptures and natural found objects such as tree bark and dead flowers. The curator juxtaposes these and other sculptures of Venosa, which makes it hard to discern which objects are found and which are not. Venosa’s work is an impressive assemblage of different materials. In this exhibition alone, his work is made of rubberized fabric, aluminum, bronze, brass, steel, UV printing and more. Mimicking some found objects that he also displays, each of his sculptures feels like they are from their own universe in their own time, yet the work also feels to be exploring the same idea. Some look clearly like bones, while others are too abstract to tell what their shape was inspired by. Spreading across the gallery, the placement of the works is also impressive. The sculptures fill the room in an organic manner, seamlessly echoing how one might find objects in nature.
One of the most striking works is a small and simple one: a black sculpture made of brass that hangs on the wall like it’s glued. It’s long and thin, its shape surprising compared to the rest of the voluptuous works in the room. Reminiscent of a crack in the wall, a shard of glass, or the most brittle bone, its delicacy complements the fact that Venosa is inspired by bodies: It seems that Venosa is conveying the same emotions that he felt when he was holding the bird skull in that video. Now, we gaze upon his sculptures with awe.
“Angelo Venosa curated by Vik Muniz” is on view at Nara Roesler, 511 West 21st Street, New York, through April 20.
Mána Taylor is a writer currently based in New York. Her writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, The Drift, Artsy, The Chicago Reader, Newcity, Plates Journal, among other places. She is the co-founder and editor of The Documentarian and writes a newsletter called Landmarks Everywhere.
