Fernanda Gomes. Solo Show

About

In 2013 a selection of works by Gomes was already on display at the gallery on the occasion of the group exhibition “The things I want to express are so beautiful and pure”. All the works presented in this new exhibition will be produced in situ by the artist, during her four weeks stay in Zurich, prior to the opening.

Fernanda Gomes’ installations and sculptures are the condensed result of an intense investigation and confrontation with materiality, form, space and light. On display, there will be new works made out of rudimentary, recycled materials from nature and the urban environment, as well as specifically produced artworks, with small stuck papers, Plexiglas, cotton threads, pieces of wood or burned matches, like the work presented on the invitation card. Gomes transforms these objects in a subtle way, to create unusual, suggestive connections between the various materials. Through her works, she explores and reflects upon the intrinsic poetic value of objects and spaces, in her characteristic minimal aesthetic, that often includes the use of white paint. Gomes explains that to her, white means light, the sum of all colors, emptiness and fullness at the same time. She applies white paint, as much as she leaves white materials uncolored, to raise the expressive potential of each object and to create a free environment for new values.

Materials acquire in her works a self-referring dimension which casts doubts at the most basic level, often questioning their bare presence. Through these processes, spectators are lead to search for the positive presence of the raw materials and their potential values. In an interview in her latest monograph “Fernanda Gomes”, from the Arte Bra collection, she explains her approach as follows:

“Apparently meaningless things kindle completely unexpected sparks of possibilities that I go on to develop (…). Recovering discarded items works on many levels. It's also a statement against excess and waste, which really bother me. It’s a way of not adding more things to the world (…). I value every single thing for what it represents in terms of work and of resources employed. It’s thrift as a principle and practice, going against the current system of values.”

Fernanda Gomes, who was born in 1960 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and still lives and works there, has shown her works in numerous solo exhibitions, in institutions such as the Centre international de l’art et du paysage, Vassivière, 2013, the MAM Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, 2011, the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, 2006 or the Chisenhale Gallery, London, 1997. She has participated in important group shows, such as “Imagine Brazil”, in the Musée d’art contemporain, Lyon, and the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, 2013, in “Gagarin the Artists in their Own Words” in the S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, 2009, in “Collecting history: Highlighting Recent Acquisitions”, in the MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2009, or in “Slow Movement oder: Das Halbe und das ganze”, in the Kunsthalle Bern, 2009. Gomes has also presented her works in numerous biennials, such as the Istanbul Biennial in 2013, the São Paulo Biennial in 2012, or the 50th Biennale di Venezia, in 2003. Gomes’s works are also currently on view in “Proportio”, a group exhibition on display in the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, Italy, and in “Une histoire, art, architecture et design, des années 80 à aujourd'hui”, in the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France.

Works by Fernanda Gomes are included in public collections such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Tate Modern, London, the Miami Art Museum, Miami, the Fundación Jumex, Mexico City, the Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, or the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.

Among the publications about the artist there are the recently published monograph “Fernanda Gomes”, from the Arte Bra collection, edited by Luiza Mello, 2015, the catalogue "Fernanda Gomes" from the Fundação Serralves, Portugal, 2006, and the artist’s book “Fernanda Gomes”, published by the Centre international d’art et du paysage, Vassivière, France, in 2013, which are available in the gallery. For