Artistas e suas obras_Artists and their works
Pack Encounters
The artist performs, in linoleum engraving, three works through which he/she casts his/her gaze on the Pack in order to explore, in separate matrices, different compositions and forms having as a starting point the weekly meetings of the group. The first image shows the maned wolf, an animal that is threatened with extinction. Just like him, each interviewee, when showing his/her portfolio, feels the responsibility to talk about his/her creations.
The following work presents the guest in his/her three moments of reflection during the contact with the group: build his/her speech, make the presentation and listen to the affectionate opinions of the members of the Pack. It is a process in which everyone, those who speak and those who listen, reveal the same thirst for dialogue and for expanding knowledge. It is a practice of sharing one’s own knowledge and absorbing others’ knowledge to build one’s own in a healthy anthropophagy. The last image features the artist dog, revealing himself to the group with his ideas, thoughts and actions.
Inspired by Brazilian popular culture, the series; Sayings, Proverbs and Expressions of the artist Alex Állen, praises the riches of Brazil, from the appropriation of cave paintings and views on the different shades of the biome present at Serra da Capivara, a ridge from Piauí, Brazil.
That unit of conservation and integral protection of nature was declared by UNESCO, in 1991, as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The real code of the art was lost thousands of years ago. It is not possible to state anything with absolute certainty, only assumptions about the intention of those people who carved into the rocks, the records of their everyday experiences, as well as the records of natural and wild life.
The motivation of Alex Állen art is to redefine, visually and poetically, the stories transmitted by several generations. The research and visual references have been captured by the artist from photographic records in loco, at Serra da Capivara National Park, located in the southeast of the State of Piauí – which occupies part of the municipalities of São Raimundo Nonato, João Costa, Brejo do Piauí and Coronel José Dias.
This rich pictorial collection has gained new perspectives and interpretations, which aims to tell and immortalize the stories of Brasilian people, keeping alive the lessons of life and popular wisdom. Photography + Popular Poetry + Creativity, result in 3D Paintings.
Anyway, a simple and fun way to explore what’s happening at the weekly Pack encounters. Design, exchange experiences, tell stories and produce. Two works have been chosen by the artist for the Pack Exhibition, “Barking dogs seldom bite” and “Let sleeping dogs lie”, the first alludes to the search for action, which goes beyond verbalization, while the second mentions advice, not to mess with those who are quiet, especially when in a group. After all, artistic minds are “creative for dogs!”. Wow!!!!
Wolves connect at dusk
Virtual meetings result in partnership? From the pack perspective, yes. The dynamics become more interesting as the relationships built in the virtual environment are mediated by the common interest, art, in a harmonious and interactive atmosphere. Participants chain themselves together every week with joy expanding the map of opportunities, bringing awareness of belonging artistic diversity. We are thus colorful and collective.
Rise
The movement of Pack meetings and relationships made possible the rise of friendship fueled by the greatness of the character of the components. We are complex and diverse in our feelings and artistic techniques, present and distant in our localities, but we are walking in the same direction.
Healthy greetings
A link will be sent for us from the heaven in order to connect us. Thus, the meeting between talent and learning, between haughtiness and humility will occur, with delicious laughs transcribed by wi-fi. Then we connect with our guests and practice ‘listening’, an exercise in affective awareness. First we listen to ourselves to be whole to listen to others.
Guara Wolf
This rich pictorial collection has gained new perspectives and interpretations, which aims to tell and immortalize the stories of Brasilian people, keeping alive the lessons of life and popular wisdom. Photography + Popular Poetry + Creativity, result in 3D Paintings.
Anyway, a simple and fun way to explore what’s happening at the weekly Pack encounters. Design, exchange experiences, tell stories and produce. Two works have been chosen by the artist for the Pack Exhibition, “Barking dogs seldom bite” and “Let sleeping dogs lie”, the first alludes to the search for action, which goes beyond verbalization, while the second mentions advice, not to mess with those who are quiet, especially when in a group. After all, artistic minds are “creative for dogs!”. Wow!!!!
Releasing the dogs
I have been invited to take part on an exhibition by the “MATILHA” art group. Such a nice people!
As “MATILHA” means a group of dogs, a pack, at pandemic times someone could also call us “Kennel” as we were all in isolation. Each one have been invited to participate with 3 artworks. In my case, screens! I’m a painter dog, or a dog painter!
Luckily I have no collar or electronic anklet but muzzles, I means, masks, mainly N95 masks! The suggested theme, of course, was: “MATILHA”. Pick a little hard for me, an abstract painter. What would it be like to paint an abstract painting about a pack? Tough nut to crack!
I tried to act like a dog! Howling! Barking! I tried to have canine feelings and emotions, lick people, lay on the kitchen floor, started to admire the posts, but I kept urinating at the washing room. Didn’t agree to eat kibble and chase cats… For a moment… I thought with myself! This challenge will not be easy. Compared to humans, dogs are special… in fact, any animal is purer and better than us.
A dog is a faithful companion, behavior that comes from distant and immemorial times. For some cultures it is a symbol of mystery, occult and arts.
In other cultures, as Oscar had already mentioned, dogs is believed to be a guide to other world, leading souls to paradise… or to the gates of hell. For dogs could also be credited some art of guessing… I have liked this part, who knows, maybe it will help me to guess what I must to do! Oh my
Dogs have a great sense of smell, their relationship with the world basically depends on their nose, a basic sniff is almost like reading a 200-page book!
They have an incredible hearing! I once read that they only see in black and white, that’s it, at that point I was wrong!
I am an inveterate colorist! I love all the colors! I thought and thought and thought… what a difficult situation!
I felt like a stray dog, abandoned on the side of the road… How to make an abstract painting related to them?
Do I need to start smelling and hearing colors?
Hear, I can hear, but smelling is a new process, and somethings are not really fragrant. How would a dog paint a canvas? With the paws? With the tail?
Maybe I’ll start there, I don’t have paws, but I can improvise, make paw stamps and use them as if they were spatulas or brushes! Found! One part seems to be resolved! But this story of seeing in black and white is not going to work.
Painting, for me, is a self-knowledge, a spiritual activity. If dogs are conductors of souls, I will interfere in this process and do my best to fill their soul with millions of colors!
Converging in searches and inspirations, the works that make up the Matilha exhibition speaks about movements and processes and never about absolute truths. Discerning and committing to chosen paths, sometimes filtered, sometimes sifted, feeds us as a group inserted on the larger context of art and, why not say, life.
Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the apple, glimpsed under the rice poured under the crockery lid, illustrates this process. Eat it or not, it merges with the whole of the work entitled Seated at the Father’s Right Hand.
Colored seals, sometimes open and sometimes closed, are spread through the mesh of the sieve mixed with animal figures that are pack members. Although multiple, we converge on the uniqueness of the search.
Separei o joio e comi o trigo evidencia tal verdade. Das coisas que deixei passar, convida o espectador a integra-se a todo esse processo, interagindo e tocando a obra a seu modo. Fixa em um ponto, movimenta-se aleatoriamente em seu eixo, voltando a posição inicial. Diminuto, porém central, impera o homem que tudo observa.
I separated the chaff and ate the wheat evidences this truth. From the things I let pass, invites the viewer to become part of this whole process interacting and touching the work in his own way. Fixed at a point, it moves randomly on its axis, returning to the initial position. Diminutive, but central, the man who observes everything reigns.
My work involves the line as a narrative and poetic matter, as well as sewing, embroidery and ceramics, female ancestor crafts that are part of my biographical identity.
Both the construction of the design with embroidery, the sewing on fabric or paper, and the modeling of clay cords inspired by the craftsmanship of crochet and the loom, summon me to think beyond the matter and the process.
I glimpse my poetic narratives in each thread and cord. Personal, poetic, aesthetic and historical perspectives weave interpretations for each work I carry out, in addition to the constant search for resources from a very deep collective and symbolic field.
The thread, a symbol of bonding and connection, makes the sewn weft a manifestation of life.
In the triptych Group under construction, the line crosses the layers of paper and leaves the formation of a figurative drawing, but also shows its traces.
Sewing is presented as such a sensitive, careful gesture, demonstrating and or representing the simplicity of the line with its power to build.
It’s a difficult path, paper is not as malleable as fabric. And the line that never ends! In the installation Relations IV, the clay cords in different colors, modeled by hand, one by one, form a tangle, without a center.
The chains connote relationships, metaphorizing ancestry with clay, as well as contemporary phenomena such as connectivity and decentralization.
When articulated, these units branch out, creating networks and relationships. The different earthy colors of the clay draw my attention to nature’s generosity and human diversity.
INTERLINES – Happenings
INTERLINES I – Art Happening at Marcelo Neves Gallery – 2022
INTERLINES II – Happening at Porta do Sol Residential Park – Mairinque-SP
Entrelinhas is an invitation to the craft of thread and needle, a collective moment of delivery, participation and integration.
ENTRELINHAS – Happenings
ENTRELINHAS I – Art Happening at Marcelo Neves Gallery – 2022
ENTRELINHAS II – Happening at Porta do Sol Residential Park – Mairinque-SP
Entrelinhas happening is an invitation to the craft of thread and needle, a collective moment of delivery, participation and integration. An invitation to be together and at the same time look inside yourself. When I was raised, I tried to “relive” the scene of the women in my family, she emphasizes, at different ages, united by a work that alleviated the hard routine.
SYNANTHROPICS SERIES
Synanthropes are animals that live in urban areas.
They don’t care about humans, who are as much a part of nature as they are, but they benefit from our activity and existence.
Human beings are arrogant and treat other animals as less important.
Synanthropics are the greatest proof that nature will always survive, and that man is not nature’s father, but her son.
Rats, pigeons, skunks and vultures are examples of synanthropies.
Covid, which I photographed at the beginning of the pandemic, also benefits human beings and, like synanthropes, makes us see that we are not gods, but living beings who struggle as much as other beings to continue to exist.
This vulture is part of a very current theme, as it can be synanthropic when in the city, and is also saprophagous, that is, a carcass recycler.
A pet dove called Pompace of Aritrea
Dimitri came into the house and said: – There’s a dove in the garage.
The next day in the morning, I asked him if the dove had left. He replied affirmatively. However, at the end of the day, he reported something unusual: The dove, lame on one leg, had entered the house through the garage door and, walking with difficulty, passed through the living room and went into the garden. In the living room there is a glass door that opens onto the garden, and the dove decided to peck at the glass. When he opened the door to complain, the little animal jumped again into the house. So, he shooed her out again.
Night fell down and I, armed with a powerful flashlight, went to inspect the backyard, checking if there was some sign of the dove. No dove! I lay down on the bed relieved. But…in the morning, walking in the garden, I came face to face with the bird which, terrified, jumped into the bush.
We put water and food around. The food is gone! Over time, she started to bounced back and forth when the food arrived, even responded to the whistle call at the food arrival. It created menu preferences. Suddenly we understand that the dove was turning into a pet! She especially liked eggs with rice.
The dogs were no longer surprised about the mysterious conversations between the dove and me on the other side of the garden. They stopped running, barking and sniffing for illicit activities. We were getting attached to the pet. The dove was named Pompace of Aritrea, in honor of Hypatia of Alexandria.
Every day in the late morning, we would do a “physiotherapy session,” with her, with Dimitri running around and making grunts in order to make her fly. It worked, and on the lazy days of the main “physical therapist”, she would call me to show off her wings in fair flight.
We started planning a roost, as some predator could attack, maybe a mouse. What would we do when we were traveling? We needed a big, big cage.
But…Something more unusual happened, another dove arrived, even sicker than the first. And she had leftover lemon bags intertwined, which was hurting her legs. We removed it. We were becoming a pigeon hospital, I thought.
Pompacia was pleased with the new company. She protected her friend by covering her with her wings when we approached. It was beautiful to see!
But…it didn’t last long, in three days the dove friend died, or was dying when Dimi put her body in a bag and threw it out on the street, with the garbage.
After that, Pompacia became agitated, jumped up and down and didn’t want to eat. When I got home from work she was no longer there.
Revolted, I nicknamed Dimi as “The man with the bag”, and for the next few days I was whistling in the hope that she would come back. I had already given up hope when about three months later she returned, this time to leave this Earth under our care. She was buried close to where she used to sleep. She had a wake before the funeral and prayers at the farewell. We miss her.
Boat of Dreamers
The paper boat created by the artist, made of ceramic, carries a pack of dreamers.
The artwork, on a piece of wood, a material in constant transformation, with glass balls representing the members of the group, brings an important suggestion of duality between the ephemeral and the eternal, the fragile and the resistant.
If the paper boat can be easily destroyed, the ceramic one has more resistance, as well as the relationships that are created in the journey within a group.
The boat takes dreamers, both those who regularly attend the weekly meetings, as well as those who attend sporadically and guests who show their work.
Dreaming together, in a Freudian perspective, points to the concept that, in discussions, it is possible to reveal insights about hidden desires and emotions, help in memory formation and problem solving or simply randomly activate the brain.
Em qualquer uma dessas vertentes, o barco de sonhadores prossegue o seu rumo…
In any of these ways, the boat of dreamers continues its course..
Oscar D’Ambrosio
The two diptychs presented by the artist are connected by the concept of collectivity.
At the first one, the mythical image of the members of the group appears feeding themselves, so that they can, soon after, fly in the most varied directions and situations.
The meetings, in this sense, are motivating to absorb knowledge and take it, transforming them towards new places.
At the second one, there is a peculiar Holy Communion. Leonardo da Vinci’s work is motivating to create an environment in the tropics in which there is a permanent works where more than 13 people from the original Sacred Meal can participate.
There are references to technology and the Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral. The artwork revalues the past and intends, at the present, to raise the future.
In the second part of this second diptych, about the Brazilianness of a banana leaf, and not the traditional bread, each individual, as if he were a matchbox, a fragment of the world, participates at the meetings ready to bring his reflection to the whole .
Thus, exchanges take place and everyone is enhanced as artists and human beings.
Oscar D’Ambrosio
Images are visual interpretations of the world, records of thinking, intelligences of the world crystallized by technique.
In these aspects, Mauricio Ferreira brings works that plastically recount the existence of the Matilha group with refined technique, lyricism and good humor.
The two artworks, made by crayon pencils on cardboard, present, respectively, the youthful expression of the members of the group in the face of the possibility, in the midst of the pandemic, caused by the new coronavirus, of discussing art, tasty dish to be swallowed; and an ironic self-portrait in which the artist, with his unfailing pipe, headphones and keen reflective and critical sense, observes us.
Doing this, affectionately, through his artistic creation, he can also knows himself.
The meetings, as shown in the gouache image, are at the end of the afternoon, a moment of reflection in which, with the past behind one’s back, one lives the present and builds one’s own future, from the personal work to the global thinking in the art of living and dreaming.
Oscar D’Ambrosio
Sanagê Cardoso’s artwork for this exhibition can be summarized by the word multiplicity.
Whether at the animals miniatures or in the cutouts that deal with the concepts of hollows or mirrors, prevails the concept that dialogues are the most important thing.
Each member of the group maintains their individuality, which is permeated by the views and opinions of others in a game in which there are no winners or losers, but exchanges that seek to expand everyone’s worldview.
Oscar D’Ambrosio