Dialogues In Paint
Camila Belchior
The group of nine emerging talents in "TINTA" on view at Galeria Leme, form a network of dialogues and relationships; dynamic and inquisitive, their grouping allows space for alternative and enlightened juxtapositions–formal and conceptual–which remind one that there is nothing like (fresh) paint–tinta– to spark conversation.
"TINTA" comes as an opportunity to view artists from several countries and of various backgrounds who share common ground in figurative and representational painting as well as in their investigations and questioning of the mechanisms of a medium and the experience of art today. Sandra Gamarra (Peru) created a fictitious museum of contemporary art for Lima, Li-MAC (www.li-mac.org), and the works in its collection are her reproductions of others’. Gamarra turns to appropriation as criticism of the experience of high-end contemporary art today, which often, and sometimes only, is given through reproductions. Pag.219 (2005) in the show, is a meticulous reproduction of a Thomas Ruff (D.P.B 08, 2000) where the blurred photographic streaks of greens and browns are recreated with precision to recapture the image. Its new condition raises questions regarding authorship, originality, ownership and the standards of the experience of art, knowledge and culture today, which saunter through the show. Walter Benjamin’s theories in the classic The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction echo questioningly from Gamarra’s work to Felipe Cama’s (Brazil) piece from the series Foi assim que me ensinaram (This Was How I Was Taught), for his illustrated art book placed in an acrylic case and his reproductions of those depicted in it, question the standard of the experience of art and apprenticeship through massively produced sources today.
Rigo Schmidt (Germany) works in small format and reaches towards the tradition of painting, (natural history) museum exhibits and scientific archives as founding elements in the formation of society and culture, in order to question knowledge gained through constructed images today. Withdrawn from their original context, Schmidt’s technically acute subjects–a large, menacing white gorilla on a dark background–remind one that every image is a construct and that every element that forms the whole, induces one’s understanding of it. Michael Kalki’s (Germany) oils also toy with notions of fragmentation and de-contextualisation, but he draws motifs much of the time from cinema, and presents a painterly collage of disconnected fragments that together compose a unique restructured space for unique internal dynamic relationships.
A highlight in the show, Paulo Almeida (Brazil) puts a whole other spin on the idea of a dynamic painterly space in his large format mutating canvases. Almeida reconstructs his works every time they are to be exhibited by layering another image over the previous one, forming a ghostly trace of watermark images on the canvas. He injects momentum into a traditionally static form of representation, questions established notions of image as reference, of aesthetics and taste, while introducing a recurring element of surprise that defies the true acquisition and ownership of art. From another angle, Almeida encourages that his works be shown, by guaranteeing a new work in return; which works for the adventurous when what you see is not necessarily what you get back.
Neil Rumming (England) ventures a less hazy palette, but his appropriations of symbols, images, and styles from the group imagery provide a surreal path through his expressive paintings. No less surreal but perhaps more subdued and dreamy, are Gabriel Acevedo Velarde’s (Peru) works which draw on an intimate imagery of figures and unique cartoons.
Cityscapes and landscapes come forth in Kristina Solomoukha’s (Ukraine) and Ana Paula Lobo’s (Brazil) pieces, the latter showing painted cubes in cool colours that remit the fragmented references and rhythm, in urban settings. Solomoukha’s watercolours poetically portray the fluid rhythm of ring roads and flyovers in Brazil. Stripping them of their function and lacing them with grace, Solomoukha appropriates herself of these feats of engineering and reintroduces these urban veins as melodic relationships between form, rhythm, colour and perspective, reminding one that the basic concerns of painting are always available, subject to the keen eye, knowledge and experiences.
