{"id":2638,"date":"2013-10-29T13:26:16","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T13:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raulmourao.com\/blog\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2013-10-29T13:26:16","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T13:26:16","slug":"marepe-anton-kern-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archive.raulmourao.com\/blog\/?p=2638","title":{"rendered":"MAREPE @ ANTON KERN GALLERY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"marepe_anton_kern\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Marepe<\/p>\n

October 25 \u2013 December 14, 2013<\/p>\n

For his third solo show at Anton\u00a0Kern Gallery, Brazilian artist Marepe presents a group of\u00a0seven sculptures made of common objects and put together\u00a0with great formal rigor and poetic potential. These works\u00a0achieve a complex layering of references and meanings\u00a0addressing the linkage between the individual and society.<\/p>\n

Marepe’s sculptures are made from everyday materials such as plastic buckets and tables, ironing boards, brooms,\u00a0bicycles, wheelbarrows, and chipboard. Some titles, such as Embutido Sanfona (embedded accordion), are inspired by\u00a0popular music, others are factual and descriptive, such as Empilhamento (stacking). The work allows for a direct reading,\u00a0and perhaps more importantly, leads toward a sensory experience; an intimacy of touch and interaction, comparable to\u00a0the deeply emotional experience and immediacy of listening to music.<\/p>\n

Duchamp and Neoconcretismo may be part of Marepe’s inspiration, but it is the artist’s deep concern for the social and\u00a0for human interaction that drives his art. He combines quotidian objects and materials to form disarmingly simple\u00a0monuments, some suggesting abstract forms, others depicting figures engaged in dance-like interaction, and in some\u00a0cases allowing cut-out chipboard to assist in creating specific figures.<\/p>\n

Many of Marepe’s titles refer to Brazilian music or lyrics. Embutido Sanfona for example, can be translated as \u201cbuilt-in\u00a0concertina,\u201d the slightly smaller version of the accordion which is the lead instrument in Forr\u00f3, a thrilling and infectious\u00a0folk-pop music from the North-East of Brazil, the region where Marepe grew up and still lives and works. “Embutido\u00a0Sanfona” also refers to Marepe’s previous wooden models for rooms and trucks and his interest in communal and shared\u00a0spaces. It is simultaneously a minimalist kinetic sculpture, a model for multi-purpose housing, and a musical celebration.<\/p>\n

Marepe’s work speaks, or rather sings of everyday life and love, celebrating and elevating the specific materials and\u00a0origins of the work to the universal. The ordinary shines in its simple beauty declaring its liberating and transformative\u00a0power.<\/p>\n

Born Marcos Reis Peixoto 1970 in San Antonio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil, Marepe lives and works in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. The artist\u00a0has participated in various group exhibitions including The Living Years, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2012); Gigantes por su propia\u00a0naturaleza, IVAM Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderna, Valencia, Spain (2011); NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, The Menil\u00a0Collection, Houston; PS1, Long Island City; Miami Art Museum, Miami (2008\/09); An Unruly History of the Readymade, Jumex\u00a0Collection, M\u00e9xico; When Lives Become Form: Contemporary Brazilian Art: 1960-Present, Museum of Contemporary Art of Tokyo (both\u00a02008); Alien Nation, ICA, London; 27th Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo; 15th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (all 2006); Tropic\u00e1lia: A Revolution in\u00a0Brazilian Culture, Barbican Art Gallery, London; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Museu de Art Moderna, Rio de Janeiro,\u00a0Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2005\/06); How Latitudes Becomes Forms: Art in a Global Age, Contemporary Arts Museum,\u00a0Houston; Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; the Istanbul Biennial (all 2004). Recent solo exhibitions include Veja meu Bem, Tate Modern,\u00a0London; Espelho, Museu de Arte Moderna, S\u00e3o Paulo (both 2007), and Vermelho Amarelo Verde Azul, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2005);<\/p>\n

The exhibition opens on Friday, October 25 and will run through Saturday, December 14, 2013. The gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday,<\/p>\n

10am-6pm. For further information and images, please contact the gallery at (t) 212.367.9663, or email: nahna@antonkerngallery.com.<\/p>\n

l\u00e1 no site\u00a0http:\/\/www.antonkerngallery.com<\/a><\/p>\n