The solo exhibits “As we are” by the Brazilian artist Bel Barcellos and “Significant Beings”, by the artist Rodrigo Mogiz, from Minas Gerais, on display from November 23 to December 19, address the delicacy of embroidered drawing in dialogue with the subjectivity of human relations. Both curated by Isabel Sanson Portella, curator of the Rio de Janeiro Art Museum.
This unprecedented show brings together the recent production of these two rising artists, presenting embroidered designs on different types of fabric, exploring various concepts and aesthetic possibilities of the sewing tradition. Integrating the exhibition, the MURO and VITRINE projects present, in a great scale mural, the hybrid painting of the artist Julio Cesar Lopes.
In the words of the curator Isabel Sanson Portella, “Bel Barcellos met in the As we are pieces that are far more than ramblings about the human condition. In all there is a silent reflection on the everyday of the modern being that faces the difficult relationship with one another. In this way, the human being tries to express his aspirations and longings in small gestures so as not to overwhelm the immense crowd that surrounds him. It was in these moments, so revealing of the day-to-day, that Bel captured with her sensitivity, transformed In art and will always thrill those who want to follow the stitches of her embroidery. “
About the poetics of Rodrigo Mogiz, the curator suggests that “Like the images of dreams that need to be deciphered and not decoded, Rodrigo Mogiz’s art also needs a deeper look so that everything, or almost everything, can be apprehended. The artist offers us the association of the embroidery with the tattoo, used with intensity in his lastest work, inserts itself in the discourse of the beauty and the pain. The pain of piercing the tissue and the skin seeking the beauty, trying to leave a mark that means the individuality. Mogiz’s designs, created with lines, beads, pearls and paints, were born from the desire to discuss the craft and the scholar, to unveil signs looking for new personal meanings for the symbols. There are so many figures and possible associations, that the spectator could spend an infinite amount of time in front the canvas that delight in the delicacy of embroidery and hold attention to the diversity, intensity and daring of themes. “
About the artists Bel Barcellos and Rodrigo Mogiz
Bel Barcellos was born in Boston, graduated in performing arts in Rio de Janeiro and became a master of performing arts, with praise, by the University of Hull, England. The work of Bel Barcellos has the human figure and its dualities as the starting point of her research, but it is not only this the core of his work. Its universe refers to a complex territory where, through the embroidered lines, the limits, the choices, the division of affections, the nuances of human relations, the threshold between dream and reality arise. She participates in exhibits in museums, cultural centers and art fairs in Brazil and abroad, she has work in several private and public collections, national and international, including the MAR – Rio Art Museum and CIFO – Ella Cisneros Foundation, in Miami.
Rodrigo Mogiz lives and works in Belo Horizonte – MG. Bachelor in Painting and Drawing by the School of Fine Arts of UFMG, also does curatorships, performances and community work. His authorial art deals with poetics that pass between drawing, painting and embroidery, also using the application of beads, lace and pins. His work creates very poetic and delicate narratives that exude great strength and extreme creative rigor. Since 2000, he has participated in individual and collective exhibitions, salons and festivals all over Brazil, in public and private institutions. Amongst the awards he has received, there are: I Cataguases-Usiminas Exhibition of Visual Arts – (2004), CNI-SESI Marcantônio Vilaça Prize for Fine Arts (2009/2010) and TRANSARTE Award (2015).
Parallel events
In this edition, the projects VITRINE and MURO presents a large panel from the Brazilian artist Julio Cesar Lopes, which mixes painting abstract elements, the concreteness of the graphic symbols through the assemblage. Julio Cesar studies and develops important projects in the Faculty of Arts Dulcina de Morais, as well as partnerships in cultural spaces in Brazil such as ECCO – Contemporary Cultural Space. He held individual exhibits in Brasília and São Paulo, amongst them, at the National Museum of the Republic / SEC, Itaú Cultural, where he was selected in the 1999/2000 National Mapping of Emerging Production, on Fernando Cocchiarale’s Curatorship. Selected from 84 young Brazilian plastic artists, by Projeto Rumos Culturais 1999 / 2000, Itaú Cultural / SP, and Itinerant shows by Brazilian capitals.