De tudo fica um pouco
[A bit of everything remains]

Mônica Ventura and Deco Adjiman

 

“A little remains oscillating
at the mouths of rivers
and the fish don’t avoid it,
a little: it’s not in the books”
(Excerpt from the poem Resíduos,
by Carlos Drummond de Andrade)

 

Discussing time and the origin of ourselves and everything around us is an arduous task. Before a chronology, time is an anthology, a landscape inhabited by the body, a journey before progression, a way of predisposing beings in the cosmos. It is about the passage of this time, its intertwining with ancestry and its inevitable relationship with the transformation of matter that the dialog contained in De tudo fica um pouco, an exhibition that brings together a cross-section of the prolific artistic production of Mônica Ventura and Deco Adjiman, on show at Galeria Luis Maluf, is about.

In this sphere, such an understanding meets the reflections of poet and essayist Leda Maria Martins and her concept of spiral time, a perception that intertwines the idea that the past inhabits the present and the future, which means that events, stripped of a linear chronology, are in the process of a perennial metamorphosis and, concomitantly, correlated. Thus, experiencing time means inhabiting a curvilinear temporality, conceived as a scroll that simultaneously seals and reveals, rolls up and unrolls the temporal instances that make up the subject. This temporal union is revealed in the work of both artists in question. Through his brush and the three-dimensional forms he builds, Ventura seeks to amplify his ancestral history. He harks back to Afro-Amerindian cosmogonies, connecting myths and past references and transporting them to the present day. Adjiman, on the other hand, makes the journey his temporal expansion. And on this journey, the artist collects, assembles and constructs narratives imbued with poetry to talk about the various possible paths in the world.

The exhibition route is punctuated by a series of large oil paintings by Mônica Ventura. Entitled Alteia (I, II and IV), from 2024, the works have contours that remind us of the Zangbetos, voodoo guardians of the night in Yoruba cults. These spirits move through music and protect the beings around them. The ancestral spiritual relationship that emerges in Ventura’s paintings permeates his entire production. Whether in two- or three-dimensional form, the artist anthropomorphizes her language, leading us to question the forms and stereotypes we inhabit and replicate. At another point, Ventura welcomes us with her recognizable gourds on which she draws cosmogonic narratives that symbolize the beginning of everything and replicate symbologies from human history.

If the past is the place of accumulative knowledge and experience, which consequently inhabits the present and the future, Deco Adjiman accesses this ancestry by touching the earth. His works each find the time of things in order to highlight the possible dimension to be reached during the journey. Measuring the temporality of this experience can be seen in works such as Travessia or the seven days or 183 kilometers on the floor of Rosa, from 2024. With wood, iron, string and earth, the artist produced what symbolizes his passage through the backlands of Minas Gerais, one of the routes taken by Riobaldo, the central character in João Guimarães Rosa’s classic Grande Sertão: Veredas. Collecting the traces that represent our experience and passage through this world is also in Coleção de Chão, from 2021. The work, made up of 54 small jars with different sedimentary compositions, encourages reflection on the uniqueness of each space, but the charm of its composition as a single floor. The piece is accompanied by an essay written by the artist, in which he muses on the definitions of territory.

Literature and, consequently, words are an essential part of Adjiman’s process, as well as the final object of his work. Verses are contained explicitly or delicately inserted subjectively throughout his work. In Cadernos de andaleço III, he transcribes phrases found in books and publications that have marked his experiences, as well as some created by the artist himself. In De tudo fica um pouco, from 2024, Adjiman transforms the classic encyclopedias, now forgotten, into other lives, inserting dried leaves collected from the surroundings into the pages. If, as Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962) reminds us, man will wonder indefinitely what mud, earth or clay he himself is made of, here we present a handful of spaces, cosmologies and interpretations that mix the possibilities of being in a spiral time. And from all this, a little bit of us remains in the world.

— Ana Carolina Ralston

Somatória de Forças [Summation of Forces]

It’s pure coincidence that Aline and I, both from São Paulo of Bahian descent, have the same surname. We and so many other ‘Bispos’ are probably descended from a certain Antônio Nicanor de Alcântara Bispo, who was, at the end of the 19th century, the 2nd secretary of the Sociedade Beneficente União Filantrópica dos Artistas, founded in Salvador in 1889. Beyond this distant kinship, we are also linked by a common interest in the forces of Afro-Brazilian sacredness.

 

Aline, who has been working on this theme in her work for almost a decade, follows the trail blazed by artists who came before her, and stands alongside her contemporaries in researching the experience of the sacred in Afro-Brazilian art. Just to name a few, among many others, artists: Arthur Bispo do Rosário, Mestre Didi, Heitor dos Prazeres, Ronaldo Rêgo, Djanira da Motta e Silva, José Adário, Moisés Patrício, Eneida Sanches, Raquel Cambinda, Antônio Obá, Sheyla Ayó, Nádia Taquari, Rodrigo Bueno, Maria Auxiliadora, Niobe Xandó, Carybé, Terciliano Júnior, Chico Tabibuia, Ana Pi, Renata Felinto, Silvana Mendes, Antonio Pulquerio, Denise Camargo. This number of names shows that Aline Bispo is not alone in this artistic circuit that draws its poetic strength from the sacred.

 

In the solo exhibition Somatória de forças, the artist, whose paintings can be seen on the gables of buildings in the vicinity of Luis Maluf (Barra Funda), presents works produced over the last five years, some of them new, made under the inspiration of contact with more or less well-known festivals in the Afro-Brazilian calendar: Bará do Mercado, Festa de Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte, 02 de Fevereiro, Nossa Senhora Aparecida, Feira de Baiano, etc.

A série Orixás, encantados, santos e voduns, de 2023, como o próprio nome assinala, aproxima em um único gesto poético a estética complexa inerente às religiões afro-brasileiras que, resultantes da diáspora, misturam referências sagradas em um jogo de revela-esconde. Assim, onde se vê a forma de um santo católico, em sua versão revestido de tecido estampado, vê-se também uma divindade africana, seja porque um fio de contas colorido está ali como um lembrete ou porque o nome da obra indica tratar-se de deuses africanos e afro-brasileiros.

 

Among the paintings, the brushstrokes, sometimes smooth and sometimes expressive, take up sacred icons such as Iemanjá, Santo Antônio, São Benedito, the women of Boa Morte and a Babá (father in Yoruba). Saint Anthony, still syncretised on the African continent with Exú, is positioned near the entrance to the gallery. Covered in black fabric, under his feet are jars of coins and strips of satin suggesting the multiplication of paths.

 

The palette used by the artist is spread throughout the exhibition: blue, white, black and red. Although these colours are widely known by their European names, in the Angolan Candomblé and Jeje Nagô traditions they are given their own ritual names. Thus, in the first tradition, white is luvemba, red tukule or tukula, black kala; in the second, blue is waji, red osun and white efun. How much plastic beauty emerges from the juxtaposition of these colours!

 

It is blue that organises the photographic composition of Asunción, from 2019. In this series, Aline offers three identical versions of Our Lady of Aparecida, but with different models. Kicked off national television in 1995, here and in other parts of the exhibition the patron saint of Brazil is materialised in young women. This is a state of multiplied spiritual ascension. Their hands hold the same crucifix of pearl and metal acorns. Another incarnation of the patron saint are the plaster representations produced by the sacred industry, modified, however, by covering them in coloured fabrics.

 

The exhibition features two flags printed with the image of the twins Cosme and Damião, also known by the Nagô term Ibeji. Aline also explores the shape of an altar, inspired by the relationship of opposition and complementarity between familiar spirits – rada – or aggressive spirits – petro, present in the Haitian Vodou religion. This reference to Voodoo gives the exhibition environment a sense of transition between zones of light and shadow.

 

With a mixture of sacred references as an abundant ingredient in her poetics, Aline Bispo pursues a path in which she recognises the value of syncretism in Brazilian culture, understanding that despite its negative aspects, in the sense that historically it has led to the concealment of cultural practices of African origins, it has also generated unprecedented strengths.

 

In 2024, studies on Afro-Brazilian art, the landmark of which is Nina Rodrigues’ text, As bellas artes dos colonos pretos – a esculptura, from 1904, will be 120 years old. At this time, initiatives such as the Somatória de forças exhibition broaden and strengthen knowledge about the multifaceted history of plastic expressions of faith in the country, which continues to inspire the field of visual arts.

 

We would like to thank Luis Maluf and his team for their support and partnership in building this exhibition.

— Alexandre Araujo Bispo

Imagens Preenchedoras [Filling Images]

Marvellous things sleep under the skin of words

 

One of the most important genres of medieval Islamic literature dealt with the wonders of creation, or mirabilia. Like Western medieval literature, these manuscripts brought together narratives about countless supernatural beings, but they also described the immensity and diversity of nature: the seas, the rivers, the mountains. They discussed the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms while expressing astonishment at the inexplicable, mysterious and fantastic. Treatises on the natural sciences, magic and, why not, poetry were brought together in a single work. Its most popular exponent was written by Zakariyya al-Qazwini (1203-1283), Wonders of Things and Miraculous Aspects of Existing Things.

In her first solo exhibition at Galeria Luis Maluf in São Paulo, artist Desirée Feldmann is presenting a set of new works entitled ‘Filling Images’. In the artist’s words, the title ‘is the name given to the set of drawings I’ve been working on since 2021, and which contain in their essence codes of symbols and colours that form, in an abstract and unconventional way, insignia of protection.’ The exhibition brings together works that result from the artist’s pictorial and material research process through the spatial unfoldings originating from the homonymous series of drawings of these ‘amulet-images’.

 

This production stems from his enquiries into the field of painting and the remote relationships established over time between humans and the mysteries of nature, which have led them to imagine and represent. Faced with sculptures and objects made of fabric, soft volumes and a colour palette carefully articulated by the organic composition of forms that are born from one another, the exhibition invites us to access some of the senses present in our earliest experiences of things in the world. By primordial experiences we can understand everything from those first memories we have to those remarkable experiences capable of producing awe, enchantment and/or completely re-signifying previous memories.

 

The works also invite us to visually perceive them gradually: the pieces are constituted by the superimposition of multiple hollow planes. Layers of modular structures made of coloured fabric and upholstery produce concavities and sinuous volumes through accumulation and overlapping. Each shape seems to be born from within another, and from another. One colour is born after another has been repeated a few times within itself, creating a vibrational field of its own. Coloured layers multiply and settle in space, like the pictorial gesture on a flat surface or like the different stratigraphic layers of a mountain in nature, designating the different ages of the Earth.

 

Little by little, Filling Images offers us the possibility of entering a cosmic dialogue operated in the contact of living bodies with matter, with the mystery of beginnings, endings and the infinite memory of time. We could then, according to this exercise in imagination, enter a space with no defined time, but filled with all the temporal layers imaginable. These sediments produce their own rhythms and temporalities, while the names that designate each work suggest varied images of existing or imaginary beings, bodily sensations, landscapes, cosmic objects, orientation tools, offerings, objects made for protection, objects of devotion.

 

We come across this restlessness in the face of the time present in things in a text written by the artist in 2022 in which she describes a hike while climbing a mountain. Her text also tells us about the geological process that determines the creation of these formations: mountains are born in cracks, in the encounter between one tectonic plate and another. In other words, mountains are born, according to this image, from the void between two plates.

 

Imagining the mountain as a living, pulsating entity, or as part (or relative) of an even larger organism would resonate with everything that rests on it. A mountain that was once submerged in a great ocean harbours shells that today seem foreign to the cold, arid landscape they inhabit. The shell carries with it the fossilised memory of an aquatic era, even though it is now far removed from that ancient marine home. Our ability to touch these other temporal, spatial and symbolic dimensions for a moment shows us that fabulation runs through us in the form of questions addressed so often to the invisible. Because ‘every form holds a life’, as Gaston Bachelard would say. And every life needs a magical breath to fill its form, enchanting it, otherwise it wouldn’t be life.

 

If, for Jorge Luis Borges, writing and reading separate us from the world through the possibility of producing fantastic parallel universes by imagining what doesn’t exist or that we don’t know, we can think that the experience of art also performs the opposite function by connecting us directly to the vital core of the most prosaic things that inhabit everyday life, relationships and the world. Thinking about such Wonders of Things and Miraculous Aspects of Existing Things is also about making oneself available to perceive and implicate oneself in some way with this inevitable, sometimes terrible and also fruitful interdependence that delimits our material and soul existence by intertwining all beings.

 

Desirée Feldmann thus summons up an enchanted and fertile memory of things, of wonders hidden by the despair of the times, bringing them together in soft, resonant and dispersed forms: a diving goggle, a watch, a shell, a flower as an offering, a mountain viewpoint, a lighthouse, a totem, a Venus and a moon take us on a long journey through words, their worlds and the vibrant matter outside them, close to us. Filling Images claims the possibility of activating the magical meanings present in a primordial production of poetry that shapes the human experience. – Yana Tamayo

 

 

1 Newsletter produced by Desirée Feldmann. Text published on 15/12/2022 and accessible at https://open.substack.com/pub/desireefeldmann/p/caderno-de-notas-pag-14-projeto-33?r=4fx97&utm_medium=ios 2 Bachelard, Gaston. The poetics of space. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1993. 3 Luiz Antonio Simas and Luiz Rufino tell us ‘the opposite of life is not death, the opposite of life is disenchantment’. In Simas, Luiz Antonio and Rufino, Luiz. Encantamento: on the politics of life. 1st Ed. – Mórula Editorial, 2020.

 

Oceano Febril

Na primeira mostra individual da artista Licida Vidal (São Paulo, 1984), “Oceano Febril”, no Galpão da Luis Maluf Galeria, o público é surpreendido com um conjunto de obras – duas grandes instalações, seis trabalhos em menor escala e uma série de três vídeos – que se articulam como sistemas em atividade. Os trabalhos poderiam ser descritos como organismos vivos ou, talvez mais precisamente, como construções orgânicas que se associam a elementos como minerais, vegetais, fungos e, eventualmente, pequenos animais como larvas e insetos que interagem e se relacionam nesses ambientes construídos.

As duas instalações, “terral” e “entre a fonte e a foz” são trabalhos que se apropriam da arquitetura da galeria: penduram-se no teto, amarram-se nas vigas, contornam paredes e transformam o espaço – de concreto – num campo fértil, cheio de movimento, em que formas de vida e novas estruturas orgânicas podem surgir. As matérias principais das instalações são terra, argila e água. Dentro desses dois trabalhos, e entre eles, a água circula, penetra volumes de terra, entra e sai de mangueiras, expande-se pelo chão. A água desperta sementes e fazendo-as brotarem, alimenta plantas comestíveis, passa através de filtros, escorre criando pequenas perturbações na lâmina d’água que ocupa grande parte do mezanino. Goteja, limpa, caindo dessas “cabaças de cerâmica” e vaza de um andar para outro da galeria, num movimento vertical que contrasta com a horizontalidade dos lagos, rios e mares, lembrando mais a chuva ou uma queda d’água minguada em tempos de seca.

Trazer a água como matéria plástica é um grande desafio que o trabalho de Licida se propõe. Nosso planeta e nossos corpos são feitos de água, elemento tão ordinário quanto imprescindível para a vida. Brigar com a água é batalha perdida – as  recentes inundações no Rio Grande do Sul talvez evidenciem isso da forma mais bruta e trágica. O trato com água exige cuidado: respeito aos fluxos, vazões e a sua forma própria de movimento. Seu peso e pressão aparecem como fortes resistências ao ser manipulada. Olhando tanto para grandes obras de engenharia civil, que desviam o curso de rios, quanto para o ofício de pescadores, pedreiros, encanadores, agricultores, entre tantos que cotidianamente lidam com a água, Licida vai formando um repertório de práticas e possibilidades de manejo. É na negociação constante com aquilo que é próprio da água: ser informe, afeita à dissolução, à evaporação, sua capacidade de permanecer escondida, de penetrar no subterrâneo e, ao mesmo tempo, sua presença física em grande volumes acumulados (oceanos, rios, represas), suas qualidades visuais (superfícies extensas, reflexivas, sensíveis até mesmo à ação sutil do vento) e sua potência – quase mágica – de disparar processos de vida, que se situam os trabalhos.

Nas obras menores, que ocupam a primeira sala, as formas recipientes são constantes: assim como as redes de tecido de “terral” e nos filtros de “entre a fonte e a foz”, aqui encontramos casulos, tigelas, aquários-terrários, bolhas, elementos capazes de reter matérias distintas. Funcionam também como membranas permeáveis que fazem trocas do meio externo com o interno, mas sempre protegendo e envolvendo aquilo que está dentro dele. Os trabalhos partem de uma observação daquilo que costumamos chamar de natureza, onde os processos de troca, interação, nascimento, morte, criação, destruição parecem ter mais autonomia em relação às estratégias de controle desenvolvidas pela humanidade ao longo do tempo. São como pequenos acontecimentos aos quais a artista está atenta e busca apreender em seu fazer: o lampejo de um vagalume, a formação rugosa da casca de uma ostra, a cristalização da água salina, a textura de um casulo.

Nesse conjunto de obras exposto em “Oceano Febril” vemos o trabalho que Licida Vidal desenvolve, dentro do campo da arte, há mais de cinco anos. São processos longos de experimentação, montagem, desvios, retornos. De certo modo, seus trabalhos nunca estão finalizados, pois colocam-se junto ao devir da natureza. Exigem cuidados, atenção, reestruturação. Aqueles que convivem com os trabalhos de Licida são chamados a serem também seus cuidadores: a pesquisarem seus processos internos, como devem ser mantidos, em que lugares podem ser instalados. Estabelece-se assim um vínculo de responsabilidade, cumplicidade e afeto. — Thaís Rivitti

Karola Braga’s next solo exhibition at Galeria Luis Maluf promises to offer visitors a unique sensory immersion. Recognized as an artist and olfactory researcher, Karola adopts a multidisciplinary approach in her work, fusing elements of culture, chemistry, anthropology and sensory science. With a master’s degree in Visual Poetics from the University of São Paulo, her artistic practice stands out for its ability to incorporate scents, which evoke memories and narratives through fragrances.

“Olfactory art is a rite of synesthesia where the mind takes us to one place and the senses take us to another. This place is ambiguously occupied by vectors in different directions. We started from an idea about the route of the incense that goes from our nose into our body. The route that incenses us. Karola Braga re-signifies the power of the symbolic by taking over the sensory field. Inhalation invites the visitor to smell the unknown and venture into its taboos. We are chemical events and chemistry is the best language to awaken us. From a displaced urinal to be sniffed, to glasses to be shared together, the paintings of the zones that emanate our deepest smells, the search for situations that reveal our permeability to the power of smell. Each line she draws generates an olfactory trail that activates a deep memory of those smells. Karola Braga has set out on a journey to map the route of human odor.” – Marcello Dantas

 

Age rating: 18 years

In this land, when you plant, everything works!”, or Finok and the excessive diversity of Brazil, is the title of the solo show by artist Raphael Sagarra (Finok), which opens on May 24 at Usina Luis Maluf. And it is this Brazilian diversity that has always motivated the artist, inspiring him to create new works for this show. The works feature a wide variety of materials: acrylic paint, oil pastel and oil stick bring Finok’s strokes to life on once-white canvases.

Finok invites viewers to explore everyday life, popular customs, musicality, sensuality and all the tropical exuberance that characterizes Brazil.

Through meticulously crafted paintings, sculptures and installations, Finok captures the essence of marginal cultures and subcultures, celebrating the ordinary and the extraordinary that coexist within Brazilian society. Each work is a visual narrative that reveals moments, events and multiple stories, providing a new perspective on often overlooked aspects of our reality.

The “Plurals” series, presented in this exhibition, is made up of polyptychs that act as fragmented records of time, addressing themes ranging from unknown carnival festivities to the role of religiosity in Brazilian traditions. The works incorporate photographs, videos and notes collected during the artist’s research, transforming them into complex and engaging visual reflections.

Among the sculptures presented are pieces such as “Mulher côco” (Coconut Woman), which explores the symbolic richness of the coconut in Brazilian culture, and “Mulher megafone” (Megaphone Woman), which amplifies the voices of those who are often marginalized by society. Each work is an invitation to reflect on the interaction between man and his environment, between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

By celebrating Brazil’s cultural diversity, “In this land, when you plant, everything grows!” seeks not only to value the identity and way of life of the Brazilian people, but also to challenge conventional perceptions of what is considered important and worthy of attention.

SERVICE
“In this land, when you plant, everything gives!”, or Finok and the excessive diversity of Brazil
Curator: Agnaldo Farias
Venue: Usina Luis Maluf
Address: R. Brigadeiro Galvão, 996, Barra Funda
Exhibition period: May 24th to July 24th
Opening and vernissage: May 24, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 10am – 7pm and Saturday 11am – 5pm – closed on Sundays and public holidays

FALL COLORS AND LIGHTS

Believing that autumn is just around the corner, this exhibition brings together three artists who share an interest in color and light: Shizue Sakamoto, Isis Gasparini and Luciana Rique. One is a painter, Shizue, the second is Isis, a plural artist who this time presents photographs in dialog with painting, and Luciana is definitely a photographer. Shizue was already part of the gallery’s roster, Isis and Luciana became closer after their brilliant participation in the Usina Luis Maluf residency program, which took place between January and February this year and ended with a remarkable exhibition.

This time, fall, as we know all too well, didn’t show up. No matter. For us, it came in the form of Shizue Sakamoto’s monochrome paintings, the soft, gentle colors, the delicate atmosphere typical of the way in which autumn sheds the luminosity of summer, lowering the harsh, relentless way in which the sun imposes itself, making it more collected, calm. Shizue’s confidence is impressive, overlapping thin layers of paint, allowing the chosen color – yellow, blue, red, pink, etc – to become stronger, just a little, as it moves towards the square edges, a procedure that guarantees the core of the canvases the appearance of airless volumes. The canvases on display are few – and there’s no need for more – and they alternate along the entrance, to the right and to the left, slowing down the visitor’s walk and inviting them to space out their steps.

 

Following this whispered chromatic procession, breaking the audience’s rapture, Isis Gasparini arrives proposing small sets of photographs combined with overlapping plates of colored acrylics. A play between photography and painting, image and color, figure and abstraction. The photographs are glued to the wall and on top of them, supported by small scapulae, in various shapes and never coinciding with the photos, are intensely colored plates. Most of the photographs in the room, not just these ones, reproduce images of museums, an inversion of what is expected of them: exhibition spaces for works now on display, targets of our curiosity to find out more about the vanishing points, what happens beyond the corridors and at the end of the stairs, what paintings are fitted into such refined frames. The irony doesn’t stop there: if most of these museums feature paintings and they, in turn, are taken up by colors, this time it’s not natural colors that are the protagonists, but artificial ones, the offspring of industry, as fake and iridescent as the words maltodextrin, saccharin sodium, acesulfame potassium, among other suspicious ingredients that make up the harmless chocolate drink you have for breakfast.

 

In the third and final room are Luciana Rique’s photographs, based on praising the shadow, in search of the point at which light awakens things, objects, wall corners, as if making them exist. The artist scrutinizes the penumbra, evaluating the way the light discreetly wounds it, an arm drop to which we are increasingly oblivious. After all, what is the point of this blinding lighting throughout the city, the loud and continuous rumble of the urban machine that never stops and finds its counterpoint in the excessive ambient music of stores, bars and restaurants, forcing us to shout instead of talking, making listening an impossibility? Luciana
goes towards the dark, hunting for what emerges in it together with the light, in the form of light, and which soon disappears, like an unidentified rumor in the dawn, like a flash so fast that we wonder if it really happened.

 

From warm colors to shadows, including an acute awareness of the resources for thinking about the nature of what we call the environment, the three artists in this exhibition create a small and necessary break in our dispersive daily lives.