Marilola

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“Marilola”: Beatriz Milhazes
17 October-19 November 2016

Beatriz Milhazes developed her own technique in painting, applying painted motives from transparent sheets of plastic onto the canvas. These are reused, the works thus bearing the memory of this meticulous process. Throughout this process motives tear at times, Milhazes acknowledges these subtle imperfections. This unusual technique close to collage or printing results in richly textured surfaces.

Milhazes’s vividly layered paintings are reminiscent of Brazilian and European Modernism as well as Baroque shapes. Her studio in Rio de Janeiro located next to the city’s botanical garden has a strong influence on her practice. The luxuriant vegetation undoubtedly inspired the floral motives and arabesques, flowers being a recurring motif in her work. The artist has incidentally pointed out how these latter hold a particular place in our lives, accompanying us through the successive rituals such as weddings and funerals. Milhazes’s work surprisingly became more abstract in the 2000s after she started observing nature directly rather than reflecting on specific designs of decorative art and pop art, which emphasizes the importance of the evoked atmosphere.

Milhazes has also been deeply influenced by Brazilian popular culture such as samba music and Rio de Janeiro’s carnival floats, while the circular shapes and their rhythmic motion can be seen as a nod to dance.

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Although her compositions strongly recall her native country, they remain abstract. There is a sense of tension between seemingly figurative forms and abstraction. The interwoven and layered forms are rarely arranged around a center, which makes it difficult for the eye to rest anywhere. She brings The viewer senses a desire to spread and expand outside the work.

Beatriz Milhazes started designing stage sets for her sister’s dance company in Rio de Janeiro in 2006, leading her to further explore working in three dimensions.

Marilola is a cascading curtain suspended from the ceiling. The dense arrangement is made of various materials such as polyester and paper flowers, beads, aluminium and resin chains. The large piece echoes the colours and rhythm of Milhazes’s two-dimensional works in which the patterns seem to be floating across the canvas, bringing the successive layers into three dimensions.

The surprisingly almost black-and-white collage Maçã em preto e branco acts as a counterpoint to the other works, triggering a dialogue with their intense colours.

The exhibition features two large-scale paintings, a medium sized one, a collage and a three-dimensional work.

Beatriz Milhazes (born 1960, Rio de Janeiro) lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. She has had numerous solo exhibitions internationally including Peréz Art Museum, Miami (2014); Paco Imperiale, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2013, travelled to Curitiba, Brazil); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2011) and Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris (2009); Pinacoteca Estação, São Paulo (2008). Group shows include Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago (2014); Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2008) and International Biennial of Sao Paolo (1998 and 2005). Her work is featured in major collections such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Madrid) and Carnegie Museum (Pittsburgh). In 2003, she represented Brazil at the Venice Biennale. Milhazes has also been granted several prominent public art commissions in the UK and the USA.

(adapted from the gallery’s press materials)


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Image: (top)
Maçã em preto e branco
by Beatriz Milhazes
33″x22″
collage of various papers on cardboard
2016
Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris

Image: (centre)
Douradinha em cinza e marrom
by Beatriz Milhazes
78.7″x94.5″
acrylic paint on linen
2016
Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris