January 23 – March 26, 2016

Opening reception: Saturday, January 23, 6–8 pm

Artist Talk: 7 pm

Lora Reynolds is pleased to announce Obras, an exhibition of sculpture and installation by nine contemporary Brazilian artists curated by Lea Weingarten.

The artists’ primary media are humble materials (e.g., wood, concrete, paper) and ready-made objects—wine glasses, a shopping bag, t-shirts. They employ a light touch in blurring the boundaries between disposability and preciousness, revealing that minimal shifts in context can dramatically alter our perception of objects, ideas, or situations. Nothing is immutable.

Alexandre da Cunha (b. 1969, Rio de Janeiro) strips household and industrial objects of their utility and familiarity: at first glance stacks of toilet plungers (without their handles) seem to be ancient earthenware, straw hats resemble nipples and areolae, mop heads might be phallic totems, and gaudy beach towels stitched together become epic paintings. Da Cunha elevates everyday objects normally associated with specific, mundane activities into grand, timeless symbols of humanity, art history, and culture.

Fernanda Gomes’s (b. 1960, Rio de Janeiro) delicate sculptures are constructed from wood, gold leaf, thread, water, matchboxes, or tissue paper. She may coat her “things” (her preferred descriptor) with a thin layer of white paint; if not, she leaves their original color—the tawny brown of wood, brick, or an unfolded tea bag. Her sculptures are assembled from found, repurposed materials, but instead of unleashing a given object’s associative power (as da Cunha does) Gomes coaxes out the pure, simple, intrinsic beauty hiding deep within each humble treasure.

Maria Nepomuceno (b. 1976, Rio de Janeiro) coils vibrant rope and beads into complex networks of tendrils that culminate in round pads or bulbs. The sculptures droop from the ceiling, crawl up a wall, or sometimes just seem to wriggle on the floor. Her soft, biomorphic forms recall carnivorous pitcher plants, the nervous system’s dendrites and axons, sun hats, hammocks, and brass instruments. Her work is built from various configurations of spirals, a shape rich with associations of connectivity, community, interdependence—and DNA, the foundation of our existence.

Obras includes artwork by Alexandre da Cunha, Marcius Galan, Fernanda Gomes, Jac Leirner, Rodrigo Matheus, Ana Mazzei, Maria Nepomuceno, Lucas Simões, and Erika Verzutti.