Art Basel Miami Beach 2022 EN

alex katz | ALLAN MCCOLLUM | ANTHONY MCCALL

BOSCO SODi | CAIO REISEWITZ | IvÁN NAVARRO | LEANDRO ERLICH

LILIANA PORTER | MARINA ABRAMOVIC | Regina Silveira

Booth D24 | Sector Galleries

Alex Katz began his art research as a form of resistance to abstract expressionism, back in the mid-20th century. His landscapes and portraits, conceived on the basis of scenes from his everyday life, bear an unmistakable language through figurative narratives, solid, vibrant colors, and simple shapes. Besides his wife Ada, his greatest inspiration, other people from his circle of friends have also been included in his paintings, generally situated in everyday environments, as in Eleuthera (1999) and Viven on Blue (2007). Throughout his 60-year career, Alex Katz has developed a true portrait of North American society, spanning through various generations and contexts.

Allan McCollum’s research explores typological possibilities based on the large-scale production of handmade objects. Working with a systematized, collaborative process of art making, he explores concepts related to serial production and the value of work in the context of mass culture. For the series Plaster Surrogates, the artist developed an organized artisanal method involving the large-scale creation of molds, the casting of plaster sculptures, and the application of enamel paint, to produce pieces free of any manual vestige. Each piece is unique in its color and format, fulfilling the aesthetic functions of a painting on the wall while also bearing subjective meanings concerning cultural values in contemporary society.

Since the early 1970s, British artist Anthony McCall has investigated aspects related to architecture and to time, mainly through filmmaking, performance, photography and drawing. His works have consistently experimented with the sculptural properties of light in the context of spaces and surfaces, as in the historical photographic series Water Table (1972), from the beginning of his career. In that series, the artist used a photographic camera to record experiments with natural lighting on a solid surface and on water. The six images show the progression of light reflecting from a wet table bearing wooden boards, which are gradually taken away by the artist, giving way to narrow bands of water, until completely disappearing. While in the first image we see the stable aspect of the structure’s solidity, the last one shows a nearly abstract surface, taken over by water and light.

One of Latin America’s most important currently active visual artists, Bosco Sodi presents investigations focused on the potential of materials from natural sources and traditional Latin American values and concepts. His highly textured paintings are made with organic materials and natural pigments, based on uninterrupted processes, where the artist assimilates the randomness of the unforeseen, making each work unique. The pieces of the series Sun Paintings (2020–22) were made with burlap sacks used for storing red peppers, a traditional product in Mexican culinary. The pieces and the idea behind them arose during the pandemic, at Casa Wabi, the artist’s studio on the coast of Oaxaca (Mexico), and were inspired by the surrounding landscape there.

Throughout his career, Caio Reisewitz has developed specific studies in photography and its various possibilities within the visual arts. Nature has been an important source of research for the artist’s work, which considers the expressive power and harmony of the elements of the composition as well as the problematics the world is currently facing. For the past ten years, his investigation concerning Guanabara Bay, on the coastline of Rio de Janeiro, has been outstanding in his oeuvre. The series Guanabara (2012) portrays the region in a very poetic way, emphasizing its natural (and original) beauty, while it also weaves a criticism of the neglect that the area has suffered throughout its history. Recurrent facts of degradation over the years have made the series increasingly relevant. Currently, for example, the region has been spotlighted by the media for having been a true cemetery for watercraft abandoned by the Brazilian Army. The artist’s work has been increasingly established as a political discourse, concerned mainly with criticisms of the system, such as the actions of man and the disdain for natural resources, the unbridled urbanization and its consequences.

Ivan Navarro’s production centers on light as its main medium, to deal with thematics that question the history of art, politics and society. Eclipse (2022) and Quark V (2022) arose from the artist’s investigation into what are known as “cosmic sculptures,” inspired by images captured by powerful telescopes scattered around the world. According to the artist, “the pictures are visions of space where the stars are born.” These colorful images portray vast mixtures of gas and dust in the universe. The idea was to establish relationships between the universe’s abstraction and infinity on the one hand, and human greed and thirst for survival on the other. Illuminated by LEDs, this series, which simulates the phenomenon of the eclipse, results from research carried out during the pandemic.

The work of Argentine artist Leandro Erlich explores the artifices of visuality, through perceptual games, mainly by way of architecture and scenes from daily life. His paradoxical installations challenge our beliefs and what we see, presenting us with situations of mystery and questioning. In one of his most enigmatic productions, the series The Cloud, the artist works with the perfect combination of technology and creativity. A cloud is represented through an illusion brought about by the interposition of 12 ultra-transparent (latest generation) glass plates printed with ceramic paint. The playful and intangible universe generally associated with clouds in the sky is reproduced by the artist, who manages to position the volume of a cloud inside a glass box. For Leandro Erlich, the cloud marks the delicate beauty of nature and the power of resistance against the impacts suffered by the natural environment.

In the 1960s, Liliana Porter was a member of the experimental print studio New York Graphic Workshop, where the artist produced a series of self-portraits, including Untitled (Triangle with one hand | Right) (1973), which problematizes the shapes of the body and face. On that occasion, the artist drew a line on one of her fingers and later continued it on a sheet of paper, recorded it in photoengraving and then printed it. She then drew a new line with a pencil based on the photoengraving and extended it in triangular format, and then took a new photograph. With time, the experiments ran through other levels of research. Liliana Porter’s so-called theatrical vignettes subvert the conventions of daily life through references of popular culture and collective memory. The artist uses artifices that border on the fantastic to compose ambiguous and controversial narratives, using her own private collection of images and small objects combined in a wide range of media, including photography, video, and installation.

Marina Abramovic became known worldwide for her research in the art of performance, which, as early as the 1960s, posed a discussion on the limits of the body within artistic experience, as well as on the direct relationship between the artist and the public. From the 1980s onward, the artist began to study subjects related to spirituality and religious syncretism, along with the potentials of the mind, body, and spirit, through a connection with nature and the sacred. This investigation became more important after the artist’s first visit to Brazil, in 1989. Since then, Marina has visited the country various times. In 2012, amidst the productions for the documentary Espaço Além, she traveled through different regions of Brazil, gathering experiences and a rich photographic collection, including the photo-essay series Places of Power, Floating (2013).