persistence and variation

feb 28 - mar 29_2018

Galeria Raquel Arnaud opens its 2018 agenda with the group exhibition Persistence and variation. Curated by Tiago Mesquita, the show brings together a set of works by each of the ten participating artists. They are repertoires that, in common, explore the same theme and procedure in a repetitive and in-depth way. As the poet, Manuel de Barros said, “Repeat, repeat – until it becomes different. Repetition is a gift of style.”

The exhibition reveals the reasoning of these artists and how they achieve small variations using the same elements. “We see the meeting of symbolic meanings in the use of mechanical figures in Carlos Zilio’s work, a complex three-dimensionality in Elizabeth Jobim, and the variation of color in a structure as simple as that of Cassio Michalany’s paintings. On the other hand, the constancy, present in some questions by artists such as Fábio Miguez, Daniel Feingold, Célia Euvaldo, Iole de Freitas, Rodrigo Bivar, Georgia Kyriakakis, and Waltercio Caldas, reinforces the insistence on the reflective character of the artwork”, says the curator.

According to Mesquita, the avalanche of representations, opinions, and information from today’s society stands as a substitute for experience. “Art often enters the game, it is dedicated to answering questions exogenous to it, guided by social networks, the market, and convictions. Thus, creation succumbs to an easy grasp of the world. Persisting in jobs in which experience is not offered in such a simple way means an important effort”.

The curator also points out that art history would lose a lot of creators such as Giorgio Morandi, Josef Albers, and Piet Mondrian did not seek aesthetic purification. Mesquita also emphasizes that these masters abandoned what did not seem essential to reach a fulcrum in their languages. “The search for a more synthetic language pointed to the end of traditional society, based on fixed positions. That future seems to have been overtaken, for better or for worse. The relationship between art and this synthetic repertoire today has another meaning, which deserves reflection based on the works in this exhibition”, completes the curator.