'LOOKS CONCEPTUAL' OR 'HOW I MISTOOK A CARL ANDRE FOR A PILE OF BRICKS' CURATED BY KIKI MAZZUCCHELLI AT GALERIA VERMELHO

"LOOKS CONCEPTUAL" or "HOW I MISTOOK A CARL ANDRE FOR A PILE OF BRICKS" curated by Kiki Mazzucchelli

The exhibition Looks Conceptual… brings together works from artists who appropriate the language and production methods of various fields of design including fashion, furniture and digital design. The interface between art and design is not a new subject. On the contrary, it dates back to at least the beginning of modernism in the late 19th century. Its history can be traced in the texts of British critic John Ruskin and the designer and artist William Morris, and in several 20th century avant-garde movements such as Soviet Constructivism, De Stijl and Bauhaus. These movements responded in different ways to the technological and political implications of industrialisation. However, with this in mind, Looks Conceptual…is not intended as a historical survey of the incestuous relationship between art and design. Rather, it brings together works from a new generation of artists who incorporate different elements of design in their artistic practice in order to explore issues pertaining to both private and public everyday life. In this sense, it is an overview of the possibilities of dialogue and the overlapping of these disciplines at the beginning of this century, in which the limits of art have already been extensively tested and in which design has come to increasingly permeate our daily interactions.

The first section of the exhibition title was borrowed from a homonymous work from the series Show Titles, by Mexican-born London-based Stefan Brueggemann. In his works, Brueggemann often explores the legacy of conceptual art, particularly in the American 1960s, employing a tautological language in his adhesive vinyl texts that function as independent artworks in the exhibition space. These are works which not only explore the physical aspect of printed design – in this case, typography – but also create a whole network of relationships which raise, amongst others, questions about how ideas are transformed into artworks.
In fact, the works presented in Looks Conceptual… explore design as the interface for a wide network of everyday relationships, transactions, and negotiations. One of the themes raised by both the Swedish duo Goldin+Senneby and the Brazilian duo Leandro Lima and Gisela Motta is the tension between relationships emerging from virtual and real space. Goldin+Senneby will show the series Objects of Virtual Desire, in which they physically build virtual objects originally designed by the users of the website Second Life. Lima and Motta create physical prototypes of firearms used in some of the most popular combat videogames worldwide.
Design as the concrete manifestation of desire is an idea which also appears in the work The Technical Vocabulary of an Interior Decorator, by the duo Los Super Elegantes. Mixing music and performance, the Los Angeles-based artists have created an ironic play in which an interior decorator with a very unorthodox methodology tries to satisfy the projected desires of her client. São Paulo artist João Loureiro, whose practice is strongly connected with interior design, will present a new piece which encapsulates the male desire for virility materialised through racing motorcycles. His stylised, aerodynamic sculpture is made of a soft material which contrasts with the original desire.

Looks Conceptual… will also present works which deal with different aspects of design, employing a range of strategies including infusing fashion and product design with a political stance or furniture design with surrealism. Reflecting the many possibilities of approximation between art and design, the exhibition aims to foreground the increasing influence of design on contemporary life and to discuss its implications and impact.

Artists: Stefan Brüggemann, Marcelo Cidade, Rommulo Conceição, Detanico and Lain, Los Super Elegantes, Marcius Galan, Maurício Ianês, João Loureiro, Rodrigo Matheus, Leandro Lima and Gisela Motta, Nicolás Robbio, Goldin+Senneby, SUPERFLEX, Carla Zaccagnini amongst others. An essay by curator Kiki Mazzucchelli will be published at the occasion of the exhibition.

About Kiki Mazzucchelli:
Education – PhD in Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, London, UK, 2004-ongoing. MA in Art History, Goldsmiths College, London, UK, 2000-2002. Recent Publications - Doris Salcedo, “Shibboleth”, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern – ArteContexto, Spain, 2007. “Art as Project”, Revista Arte e Pensamento, São Paulo, 2007. “Gambiarra as Political Assemblage in Contemporary Brazilian Art”, Arts Journal, USA, 2007.

'LOOKS CONCEPTUAL' or ‘HOW I MISTOOK A CARL ANDRE FOR A PILE OF BRICKS’
OPENING: January 18, 2008 at 8pm.
January 19 to February 16 2008.
Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 7pm. Saturday 11am to 5pm.
Galeria Vermelho
ARua Minas Gerais, 350 – 01244010 – São Paulo – SP – +11 32572033
www.galeriavermelho.com.br
info@galeriavermelho.com.br