“BIRDS’ LESSON” by Renato Rios – Galleries 1, 2 and 3 Pavilion II “FACING THE SUN” by Alexandre
Furcolin – Galleries 4 and 5 Pavilion II
Opening, Saturday, March 12th, 2022, 11am – 6pm
Gallery Karla Osorio presents two simultaneous solo exhibitions, both curated by Rodrigo Villela.
They are shows of two represented artists “FACING THE SUN ” by artist Alexandre Furcolin and
“BIRDS’ LESSON ” by artist Renato Rios.
The opening will be on March 12, Saturday, between 11am-6pm, with the presence of the artists and
thecurator Both present only unpublished works, most created in the last year and never exhibited
even in Brazil, right abroad. In the case of Renato Rios, oil paintings in various dimensions
deepening his research on color and ascentrality.
In the case of Alexandre Furcolin, paintings in mixed technique, drawings and photographs. Among
the photographs, most of them are part of the São Paulo series the object of a recent book released
in Paris about the artist, the only Latin American selected for a book from the FASHION EYE LOUIS
VUITTON collection and the book will be presented during the exhibition.
About the shows
See bellow brief curatorial note from Rodrigo Villela on each show:
“FACING THE SUN”
Solo show by ALEXANDRE FURCOLIN
“[…] There are places that do not belong to geography, but to time.”
Saul Steinberg”
The chaotic vital energy of Alexandre Furcolin’s vast artistic production invites us to see the
world with more concentrated eyes, changing our perspective, focusing – and being affected by the
force of solar radiation. Furcolin presents here a multiple set of works that bring to light the
unprecedented in paintings, photographs and drawings. With musical traits of improvisation and
mastery of gestures, Furcolin fills his canvases in raw linen like someone who draws on earth
itself: with rough gestures in deep grooves, applying different techniques and inserting torn
and fragmented photographic images. But, here, the writing is not erased by the sea or rain
water, it only suggests movement and vital flow in its black, illegible texts, accompanied by
colors that allude to the main elements of nature. The drawings, on the other hand, reveal
a type of composition that deals with an unexpected harmony, with delicate traits, which does
not respect immobility. They cry out for life and movement, and are even dancing, under our gaze.
Furcolin paints, draws and photographs. In each of these media, the artist investigates dreamlike
ambiences that bring the city chaos along with the wisdom of nature. In illegible scribble writing,
the artist works with various means to inscribe a new alphabet, and thus reconcile irreconcilable
rhythms, volumes and colors on the same plane.
From this impulse for color, form and sensation, the artist invites us to an universe that
emanates a kind of search, in a search to establish contact with the subtleties and
strangeness of the world. In this direction, landscapes are drawing, tracing and framing;
portraits are records of beams of light; and the paintings are eloquent scores. Thus, the
photographs presented connect the other works in a very subtle and fine way, not only by
reiterating ambiences, compositions and chromatic choice, but also by confirming the artist’s
posture as a participant and observer.
Alexandre Furcolin guides us to a plural, diverse, genuine world. From this clash,
Furcolin is not satisfied with the documentary record of the world. And he shows to be more
than a photographer himself: draftsman, painter, artist. If for Susan Sontag, “photography is
essentially an act of non-intervention”, for Furcolin, photography is also intervening and creating
new visual games that go beyond people, beyond the city — not to encompass it in its entirety, but
to tear a new connection with the surroundings, starting from its intimacy. As a documentary
photographer and also an interventionist, Furcolin creates new realities, new living, vital poetic games.
BIRDS´ LESSON
Solo show by Renato Rios
The Portuguese word “lecionar” (to teach in English) comes from the Latin lectio,
which means reading or lecturing. This learning with the wings of nature by Renato Rios
brings the freshness of the wind, the intemperance of flight and freedom. In this contrast
of balance and strength, Rios presents us in his paintings with strong tensions between
areas of color, which change their attitude according to the neighborhood. This chromatic game has
been widely explored throughout the pictorial tradition – whether by the Renaissance, with games of
perspective and field, or more recently by the Venezuelan Carlos Cruz-Diez, who explores a deep
dive into the universe of color itself, or even through the skies. by Volpi or by the ambiguous
chromatic atmosphere and refined geometric structure of Paulo Pasta – Rios brings us its own way of
highlighting and investigating what happens between these two spaces that were previously non-existent. When dealing with the changing temperament of colors, Rios
leads the way with his colored beams, which fly like birds in the unfathomable blue of the sky.
Tearing up the atmosphere and opening space for the imagination, Rios makes us experience new
chromatic experiences in his abstract canvases, directing us to a metaphysical place: from the
world of things to the world of ideas. On the other hand, it also does the opposite: through
surrealist elements, it freely evokes symbols that function as cicerones in this lyrical flight, as
an invitation to an internal journey.
In order to access the perception of color, many simultaneous phenomena occur – visual, emotional,
intellectual and sensitive, even if we are not aware of it. This journey time takes place in the
interaction between humanity and the environment, and is refined over time; associating the
colors with precise values and meanings. Thus, the more time we dedicate, the more the colors gain
subjective and singular contours.
Sacralizing life, ritualizing the experience, feeling and doing, and more, dialoguing
with indigenous traditions of traditional knowledge, which are close in his production as a
whole, Renato Rios shares the learning and the journey. And he treats painting as mythical time
and space, giving flight to his personal mythology. A journey into the intense blue of the ocean
floor or the bottom of the sea. In this path, flying is the way of uncontrollable access to the
elusive knowledge of diving and the search for the path to be followed, in a full desire for
expansion, on the wing of radiant matter of learning with vital energy, carrying with it the desire
to connect with the primeval nature.
About the artists
Alexandre Furcolin (Campinas, 1981):
He is visual artist and photographer from Brazil, born in Campinas-SP, in 1988. He lives and
works in São Paulo since 2005, where he develops artistic research through photobooks,
installations, site-specific sculptures, and performances that have the photographic language as
it’s starting point.. His work explores the formal and discursive possibilities of
visual language – in the relationship between images, drawings, paintings, words, and markings
utilizing different supports, scales, time-frames and structures.
Alexandre has published nine photography-based books, such as -São Paulo- (2021-Louis Vuitton
Fashion Eye Collection, Paris), -Tangerina- (2019 – published by Bessard Editions, Paris) and Casa
Doze (2015, self published in São Paulo and exhibited in “Photo-Paged: On Brazilian Experimental
Publishing” at Centre de la photographie Genève, Switzerland). Two books were shortlisted in
‘Prêmio Latinoamericano de Fotolivros, by Foto Museo Cuatro Caminos – México (2017) ,
and one shortlisted in ‘Felifa FOLA International Prize – fototeca LatinoAmericana – Buenos
Aires – Argentina(2017). He participated in group exhibitions in galleries and institutional
spaces such as off Cairo Bienalle (2018 – Cairo Egypt) Centro Cultural São Paulo (2017 – São
Paulo) , galeria A Gentil Carioca (2017 – Rio de Janeiro), Fauna Galeria (2016 – São Paulo) and
Geneva Photo Center (2017 – Switzerland). He has had 3 solo shows and he participated in several
group shows in Brazil, besides art fairs such as RTRio, SPArte and Paris Photo.
Renato Rios (Brasília, 1989)
Renato is a visual artist and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Brasília
– UnB. In 2016, he was selected to participate in the FAAP Artist Residency program, when he
moved to the city of São Paulo. He currently lives and has a studio in the Consolação neighborhood.
These years of research and living in the city of São Paulo were filled with very significant
experiences and exchanges for the young painter, such as the work routine as assistant to visual
artist Laura Vinci and painter Paulo Pasta, with whom Renato currently works and who has
influenced their thinking and production. One of the most significant features of his work is his
research in painting, arranging figurative images and abstract signs in series, diptychs,
polyptychs, seeking to weave a notion of poetic writing and mythical imagination. In his most
recent series of paintings, called Archetypes, Renato has sought to build a kind of visual syntax
of his own that, in a way, systematizes the metaphysical environment produced in his work in recent
years, reconciling different
currents of thought in the constellation of visual ideas that the set presents.