A new exhibition by the Brazilian artist Fernanda Gomes,’ at the Alison Jacques Gallery, opens on 19 April. This marks Gomes’ first show in the UK since her solo exhibition at the Chisenhale Gallery in 1997 and comes a year before her forthcoming museum solo show at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.
Employing the same premise as she chose for her recent São Paulo Biennial presentation, Gomes is spending the weeks prior to the opening of her exhibition, making work and editing her practice in the gallery spaces. Building her work in situ, Gomes’s solo show will appropriate the exhibition spaces as an extension of her studio.
Gomes’ work exists between painting and sculpture, avoiding categorization and blurring the boundaries between object and space, light and shadow, composition and dispersion. If the essential geometries of Fernanda Gomes’ installations formally recall an earlier generation of Brazilian art – the modulated space works and matchbox structures of Lygia Clark or the Metaesquemas of Helio Oiticica – they also embody Alberto Burri’s philosophy of ‘truth to materials’ exemplified in the Arte Povera movement. Through Gomes’ choice of materials, be they found objects, pieces of wood or natural materials such as gold and water, she references the poetics of the immaterial and the relationship of form to a whole. Like the Russian Constructivist Kazimir Malevich, Gomes addresses the dissolution of planes in space and her use of white as the only artificial colour in her practice in part references the history of the monochrome. Employing only the organic palette of the colours of existing objects, or smearing white across their surfaces, Gomes highlights the tangible properties of her objects while simultaneously making parts of them disappear.
Fernanda Gomes (b. 1960, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) recently participated in the São Paulo Biennial curated by Luis Perez-Oramas (2012) and the Rennes Biennial (2012). Recent solo exhibitions include Museu de Cidade, Lisbon (2012) and Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (2011). Previous museum shows include Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto (2006) and The Chisenhale Gallery, London (1997). Gomes’ work has been acquired by many museums including the Art Institute of Chicago; Miami Art Museum; Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museo de Arte Moderno, Rio de Janeiro; and Tate Modern, London.
In addition to her solo show at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2014), Gomes will have a solo show at the Centre International de l’art et du Paysage, Vassivière (2013) and will be included in the Istanbul Biennial (2013).
Fernanda Gomes is represented by Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, and Alison Jacques Gallery, London. From 19 April – 17 May