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Alban Galeria presents the renowned artist Geraldo Marcolini’s show
The exhibition opens on October 10th, with visits from October 11th until November 16th
A true and free investigation about painting, which has its starting point in the use of photos or even images captured on the internet. This is the motto of the exhibition that the Rio-born artist Geraldo Marcolini presents from October 10th at Alban Galeria, opening at 7:30pm. It’s the first show of this renowned artist in Bahia. The exhibition is open to the public from October 11th to November 16th.
Named Olho D’água, the exhibition gathers 14 works in small, medium and large formats. These are works carried out by Marcolini in the last four years, among them aquatic landscapes and some bathers’ scenes that refer to the effects of light, transparencies, reflections and refractions. “Since the beginning of my career, photography has worked as a starting point for my paintings. I aim at a transposition of the images to the canvas that prioritizes the aspects inherent to painting, such as the layers and the fluidity of the medium”, explains the artist.
In his approach, it is exactly in the intersection between photography and painting that he’s interested in working, revealing hybrid aspects in these media. “I try to start from scenes that are almost always anonymous and unpeopled, random places with narrative appeal to highlight what really interests me, which are the processes and procedures of painting”, notes Marcolini, whose trajectory is marked by solo and group exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, in cities like Berlin, Stockholm, Lisbon and Geneva.
Reflecting on images
The investigative importance of the work developed by Marcolini is highlighted by the senior curator, professor and PhD in History of Art from the University of São Paulo, Fernanda Pitta. According to Pitta, the artist has long distanced from narratives and symbolism, focusing on the materiality of painting and the appearance of things in the world. “Though he has usually dedicated himself to the genre called landscape, he is not concerned with exploring the history or visual ideology of the genre itself, taking it as a field that allows him freedom of experimentation beyond the discursive aspects of the representation.”, says Pitta.
As Fernanda Pitta reminds us, recently Marcolini has turned to aquatic landscapes, keeping the focus on water as an element that blends and reflects, that creates ambiguity between the inside and the outside, mixing points of view – we often don’t know if we are facing an image of an aspect of a plant, a rock, a fallen leaf on the water, or his reflex.’
“In the ones where the human figure appears, as bathers – another historical theme of painting – his attention to the phenomenology of the images, to the permeability of shapes and colors is capable of putting in doubt the conditioning that makes us separate human beings from other beings in the world. The appearance does not contradict reality, on the contrary. On the surface of these olhos d’água (water springs) emerges the depth of being in the world”, concludes the curator.
In turn, Geraldo Marcolini himself spots new directions in his current phase, distancing a little from his previous works, “that were mainly based on the graphic aspects of the images, were more economical in colors, sometimes even monochromatic. The current production presents a color palette which is more open and unpredictable, in a less mechanical approach to the materials”, notes the artist. Moreover, unpredictability “is a very important factor to me in this translation into painting of the chosen images, whether they are photos or videos frames”.
Geraldo Marcolini
Graduated in Architecture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Painting and Graphic Design from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Marcolini has worked with different media such as Painting, Engraving, Video, Installations and Urban Arts. He started to show his work in 1999 and since then has participated in solo shows and group exhibitions in Brazil and abroad.
Throughout his career Marcolini has participated in exhibitions such as Panorama da Arte Brasileira at the Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo (2001), Caminhos do Contemporâneo at Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro (2002), Chega de chupar essa xepa at Neue Dokument, Berlin (2004), Abre-Alas at Galeria A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (2005), Nano Stockholm at Studio 44, Stockholm (2009), Investigações Pictóricas at the Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art (2009), Oba Oba at Galeria Bang Bang, Lisbon (2015), Ter lugar pra ser at Centro Cultural São Paulo (2016), Fim de semana em Cabo Frio, Paço Imperial (solo show) (2018), Casa Carioca at Rio Museum of Art, Rio de Janeiro (2020), Brasilitudes no Espace L, Geneva (2022), among others.
Currently he is represented by the galleries Albuquerque Contemporânea and Alban Galeria.
Exhibition: Olho D’água – Geraldo Marcolini
Opening: October 10th, 2024, 7:30pm
Dates: October 11th to November 16th, 2024
Hours: Monday to Friday, 10am to 1pm; 2pm to 7pm – Saturday 10am to 1pm.
Alban Galeria: Rua Senta Pua, 53 - Ondina - Salvador - Phone: + 55 71 3241-3509 | 3014-2549
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