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<\/a><\/p>\nCristin Tierney is pleased to present Concrete Remains: Postwar and Contemporary Art from Brazil, a group exhibition curated by Jacopo\u00a0Crivelli Visconti and opening to the public on Thursday May 9, 2013. A special talk by the curator and walkthrough of the exhibition will be\u00a0held on Saturday, May 11 at 3:00 p.m.<\/p>\n
Concrete Remains will be on view at Cristin Tierney Gallery through June 22, 2013. Artists included in this exhibition are: Geraldo de Barros,\u00a0Sergio Camargo, Amilcar de Castro, Lygia Clark, Iran do Espirito Santo, Fernanda Gomes, Jac Leirner, H\u00e9lio Oiticica, and Daniel\u00a0Steegmann Mangran\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Concrete Remains examines different moments of Brazilian art of the 20th and 21st centuries, specifically looking at the lasting legacy of\u00a0Concrete art and Neoconcretism. Artworks by significant figures such as Amilcar de Castro and H\u00e9lio Oiticica will be juxtaposed with pieces\u00a0by contemporary Brazilian artists, including Iran do Espirito Santo, Fernanda Gomes, and Jac Leirner. This exhibition will demonstrate\u00a0both formal and conceptual affinities between generations, and the growing importance of these artists’ work within the context of a global\u00a0art world. A variety of media will be featured, including photographs, works on paper, sculpture and installation.<\/p>\n
In 1959 a group of Brazilian artists\u2014including Amilcar de Castro and Lygia Clark\u2014published the Neo-Concrete Manifesto. In this\u00a0manifesto they argued for a continued preoccupation with abstraction and certain tenets of Concrete Art, but suggested that a greater\u00a0freedom of expression was needed, emphasizing the subjectivity of both artist and viewer and moving beyond rationalism and formalism.<\/p>\n
These artists were not dogmatic in their definition of art, and their expansive approach allowed for a completely new kind of art to flourish in\u00a0Brazil. Often geometric in appearance, these artworks were concerned with the activation of their surrounding space and the conversion of\u00a0the viewer from passive to active participant in the creation of meaning.<\/p>\n
Untitled, by Amilcar de Castro, exemplifies an adherence to these early Neoconcretionist principles: extreme economy of form, elegant lines,\u00a0and a richness of surface that proves seductive in its simplicity. As the viewer walks around the piece subtle transformations occur: shifts of\u00a0light and shadow, mass and void. Castro\u2019s engagement of environment through form bears comparison to recent works by Jac Leirner, whose\u00a0Vagos also have an abstract sensibility but a decisively humorous sense of space and structure. Twist, a work by Iran do Espirito Santo,\u00a0similarly animates its architectural environs through its austere geometry, its minimal folds echoing those of Geraldo de Barros\u2019 Fotoformas.<\/p>\n
About the Curator: Jacopo Crivelli Visconti is a writer and curator based in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil. He holds a degree in Humanities from the\u00a0University of Naples and a Ph.D. from the University of Sao Paulo, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU-USP). As curator of the\u00a0Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo (2007-2009), he was responsible for the Brazilian Pavilion in the 52nd Venice Biennial, the Cuenca Biennial\u00a0(Ecuador) and the Lulea Biennial (Sweden), among other international exhibitions. His texts and essays have appeared in numerous\u00a0contemporary art, architecture and design magazines, in addition to exhibition catalogues and artists\u2019 monographs.<\/p>\n
For more information and images, or to RSVP for the curator talk and walkthrough, please contact Maria Kucinski at 212.594.0550 or\u00a0maria@cristintierney.com.<\/p>\n