Anita Schwartz Art Gallery proudly presents the Mar Morto (Dead Sea) exhibition with Nuno Ramos´s new works. One of the most inventive artists of the contemporary Brazilian scene, and exponent of Geração 80(Generation 80´s) Nuno has been taking part in important exhibitions since 1983. Nuno participated in the 1985, 1989 and 1994 editions of the Biennial of São Paulo, and represented Brazil in the Venice Bienale in 1995. He was awarded the Grand Award of the Barnett Newman Foundation for the ensemble of his work in 2006.
A tireless researcher of materials and artistic languages, Nuno Ramos creates tensions by using various elements, re-creating and questioning his own notion of space. The artist floats through different themes, medias and techniques. A careful observer of the "chemical" reactions between the selected materials, Nuno gives his objects physical strength: petroleum jelly, water, glass, felt, marble, sand, wood, soap react creating a powerful plastic tension.
For Mar Morto exhibition, Nuno created a large-scale installation, Soap Opera 2, in which two wooden boats are covered in soap - with 11 and 07 meters respectively - weighing two tons. During two weeks, the processes of melting and hardening of the soap took place at the ground floor of the gallery. The boats are crossed one into the other and in the nose of each one there are sets of speakers, also covered in soap, from where the Mar Morto text, made by the artist, will be heard – an actor´s voice recites the text while a masculine choir murmurs stretches of tragedies of Ésquilo and Sófocles.
Although the idea of soap is a recent theme, the boats allusion has been present in the trajectory of the artist in the same way as his connection with words. Besides the installation and two more large scale paintings, the artist presents Cascos (Hooves) – 18-minute video - which shows a "shipwreck ": sets of boats embedded in holes dug in the sand, on the beach, are modified by the tide as it goes up. Mixing boats and words, local fishermen guard the boats and recite texts written by the artist.
In Nuno´s words: "I would need my entire work, all that I´ve made and will make, to explain the importance of the word". "Whenever I produce a work, suddenly a verse, a phrase that I speak out loud, a piece of song goes to what I am doing and redistributes the forces, imposing itself. Without this, I feel that the work doesn´t operate correctly. The exception is the paintings, so proud of themselves that not even their own titles they say to me".
The fascination for the creative drive combined with the confidence in the potency of the Brazilian artistic production lends institutional value to the role of Anita Schwartz Art Gallery, going beyond the usual concept of the purely commercial art gallery, of simply buying and selling works. Through careful selection of represented artists and their works, counting with great names of contemporary Brazilian art as well as supporting emerging young artists, Anita Schwartz Art Gallery invests in the dissemination and propagation of Brazilian culture.
A tireless researcher of materials and artistic languages, Nuno Ramos creates tensions by using various elements, re-creating and questioning his own notion of space. The artist floats through different themes, medias and techniques. A careful observer of the "chemical" reactions between the selected materials, Nuno gives his objects physical strength: petroleum jelly, water, glass, felt, marble, sand, wood, soap react creating a powerful plastic tension.
For Mar Morto exhibition, Nuno created a large-scale installation, Soap Opera 2, in which two wooden boats are covered in soap - with 11 and 07 meters respectively - weighing two tons. During two weeks, the processes of melting and hardening of the soap took place at the ground floor of the gallery. The boats are crossed one into the other and in the nose of each one there are sets of speakers, also covered in soap, from where the Mar Morto text, made by the artist, will be heard – an actor´s voice recites the text while a masculine choir murmurs stretches of tragedies of Ésquilo and Sófocles.
Although the idea of soap is a recent theme, the boats allusion has been present in the trajectory of the artist in the same way as his connection with words. Besides the installation and two more large scale paintings, the artist presents Cascos (Hooves) – 18-minute video - which shows a "shipwreck ": sets of boats embedded in holes dug in the sand, on the beach, are modified by the tide as it goes up. Mixing boats and words, local fishermen guard the boats and recite texts written by the artist.
In Nuno´s words: "I would need my entire work, all that I´ve made and will make, to explain the importance of the word". "Whenever I produce a work, suddenly a verse, a phrase that I speak out loud, a piece of song goes to what I am doing and redistributes the forces, imposing itself. Without this, I feel that the work doesn´t operate correctly. The exception is the paintings, so proud of themselves that not even their own titles they say to me".
The fascination for the creative drive combined with the confidence in the potency of the Brazilian artistic production lends institutional value to the role of Anita Schwartz Art Gallery, going beyond the usual concept of the purely commercial art gallery, of simply buying and selling works. Through careful selection of represented artists and their works, counting with great names of contemporary Brazilian art as well as supporting emerging young artists, Anita Schwartz Art Gallery invests in the dissemination and propagation of Brazilian culture.
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