Vermelho presents works by three Colombian artists: Iván Argote, Carlos Motta and Andrés Gaviria: three artists working in a variety of poetic and aesthetic practices, but with a common understanding of the different as neighbor and the marginal as essential.
Argote shows works from his Radical Tenderness strategy and is also present in the References section of ArtBO, curated by Gabriela Rangel. Carlos Motta, who is currently on show with a major panoramic exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbia, OH), is exhibiting a set of bronze sculptures from the WE THE ENEMY cycle – also present in the Wexner exhibition. Vienna based Colombian artist Andrés Ramirez Gaviria, shows works from the series Finley Morse: Messages of Unfulfilled Ambition, where the artist rewrites letters that Samuel Morse sent to his family, expressing his sadness and frustration at understanding that he would not become the great artist he set out to be. Gaviria had his first solo show at Vermelho in 2022 and his solo exhibition at Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo ended this October.
The gallery also shows a set of works by Tania Candiani (Mexico), Mônica Nador + Jamac (Brazil) and Edgard de Souza (Brazil). Their works find approximations in the different uses of traditional artistic techniques on fabric: embroidery with de Souza and Candiani, and print making with Nador + Jamac. Three artists with different poetics and aesthetics, who come together in understanding the different as neighboring, and the marginal as essential.
Work produced from a workshop held in Medellin, at the Museo de Antioquia, with/ by sex workers, in partnership with the secretary of social assistance.
153 x 72 cm
Screen printing on cotton fabric
Photo VermelhoWork produced from a workshop held in Medellin, at the Museo de Antioquia, with/ by sex workers, in partnership with the secretary of social assistance.
366 x 140 cm
Screen Print on fabric
Photo Galeria Vermelho286 x140 cm
Screen Print on fabric
Photo Galeria VermelhoTo address a recurring discussion of the relationship between word and image, language and reality, the America series deals with the three main languages of American colonization – Portuguese, Spanish and English – from the fact that, if European languages were one of the instruments of colonization, today, with the American dominion over the continent, English assumes the role of recolonizing language.
In the works, strikethrough manuscripts – the greatest graphic violence that a writing can suffer – emphasize the text as an image, materializing it in order to punctuate that the language , and therefore language, is something physical, which establishes much more than just verbal speech.
15 x 49 cm
2mm laser cut acrylic
Photo VermelhoTo address a recurring discussion of the relationship between word and image, language and reality, the America series deals with the three main languages of American colonization – Portuguese, Spanish and English – from the fact that, if European languages were one of the instruments of colonization, today, with the American dominion over the continent, English assumes the role of recolonizing language.
In the works, strikethrough manuscripts – the greatest graphic violence that a writing can suffer – emphasize the text as an image, materializing it in order to punctuate that the language , and therefore language, is something physical, which establishes much more than just verbal speech.
In this work, the artist explores the limits of the perceptible and also the probabilities of making the invisible visible with the support of different forms of translation. This, in order to propose meanings that are always open to interpretation.
In Sources, the images represent the capture, possible to be made from Earth, of radio waves emitted millions of years ago by quasars in the remote cosmic space, which supposedly occurred in the moments when the universe was in its infancy.
The capture was carried out through wave telescopes that record the information moving in sums of light years that are inconceivable for the human notion of time. The sound cues were digitized and later converted into two-dimensional images with the support of Zsolt Paragi, Joint Institute for VLBI, and Sandor Frey, FOMI Satellite Geodetic Observatory.
In this way, it is intended to represent, in a condensed and present manner, not only the incomprehensible and remote time, but also a mode of retaining in this place occurrences that are not earthly. To achieve this, different formal worlds are traversed in order to obtain results that, ultimately, are never definitive or closed. The images are an interpretation that can always vary according to the representation made from the mathematical codes.
41 x 33 cm
Silver gelatin print
Photo VermelhoIn this work, the artist explores the limits of the perceptible and also the probabilities of making the invisible visible with the support of different forms of translation. This, in order to propose meanings that are always open to interpretation.
In Sources, the images represent the capture, possible to be made from Earth, of radio waves emitted millions of years ago by quasars in the remote cosmic space, which supposedly occurred in the moments when the universe was in its infancy.
The capture was carried out through wave telescopes that record the information moving in sums of light years that are inconceivable for the human notion of time. The sound cues were digitized and later converted into two-dimensional images with the support of Zsolt Paragi, Joint Institute for VLBI, and Sandor Frey, FOMI Satellite Geodetic Observatory.
In this way, it is intended to represent, in a condensed and present manner, not only the incomprehensible and remote time, but also a mode of retaining in this place occurrences that are not earthly. To achieve this, different formal worlds are traversed in order to obtain results that, ultimately, are never definitive or closed. The images are an interpretation that can always vary according to the representation made from the mathematical codes.
With this work, the artist explores the notion of artistic failure through the historical figure of Samuel Morse, the renowned inventor who began his successful career in telegraphy while seeing the vanishing of his dream of becoming an artist of the stature of the great European painters he most admired.
The photography in this work focuses on the first prototype built by Morse for his telegraphic project in 1837. In this first initial experiment, Morse installed the telegraphic apparatus in a pictorial frame, with which – probably unintentionally – he gave history an image in which one can visualize a cross between the world of the arts and that of the sciences.
The works that accompany the photography are transcriptions in Morse code of some of the letters that Morse wrote expressing his sadness and frustration when he understood that he would not become the great artist he had set out to become and that, therefore, he would not see realized the dreams for which he prepared himself at art academies in the United States and in Europe.
In addition to the inventor’s feelings, Andrés Ramírez Gaviria recognizes Morse’s communicative creation as a powerful work of abstract art that goes far beyond the first goals that the author had set for himself in painting.
89 x 81cm
Oil on linen
Photo Filipe BerndtWith this work, the artist explores the notion of artistic failure through the historical figure of Samuel Morse, the renowned inventor who began his successful career in telegraphy while seeing the vanishing of his dream of becoming an artist of the stature of the great European painters he most admired.
The photography in this work focuses on the first prototype built by Morse for his telegraphic project in 1837. In this first initial experiment, Morse installed the telegraphic apparatus in a pictorial frame, with which – probably unintentionally – he gave history an image in which one can visualize a cross between the world of the arts and that of the sciences.
The works that accompany the photography are transcriptions in Morse code of some of the letters that Morse wrote expressing his sadness and frustration when he understood that he would not become the great artist he had set out to become and that, therefore, he would not see realized the dreams for which he prepared himself at art academies in the United States and in Europe.
In addition to the inventor’s feelings, Andrés Ramírez Gaviria recognizes Morse’s communicative creation as a powerful work of abstract art that goes far beyond the first goals that the author had set for himself in painting.
Edgard de Souza’s work starts from the decontextualization of everyday objects. With this operation, the artist seeks to destabilize concepts and conventions about art, proposing a new gaze at objects and forms that are around us, building new senses and meanings.
Another important aspect of his work is the production of objects and sculptures that refer to the human body. These are forms that approach the surrealist imagination, with signs and traces of ambiguous and fragmented corporeity, causing both estrangement and familiarity. Desire, sensuality, sexuality, and eroticism are aspects that acquire materiality in his works and provoke in the spectator the perception of himself and his human condition, his body, sensations, experiences and memories.
35 x 22 x 2 cm
cotton thread on linen
Photo Galeria VermelhoEdgard de Souza’s work starts from the decontextualization of everyday objects. With this operation, the artist seeks to destabilize concepts and conventions about art, proposing a new gaze at objects and forms that are around us, building new senses and meanings.
Another important aspect of his work is the production of objects and sculptures that refer to the human body. These are forms that approach the surrealist imagination, with signs and traces of ambiguous and fragmented corporeity, causing both estrangement and familiarity. Desire, sensuality, sexuality, and eroticism are aspects that acquire materiality in his works and provoke in the spectator the perception of himself and his human condition, his body, sensations, experiences and memories.
Edgard de Souza’s work starts from the decontextualization of everyday objects. With this operation, the artist seeks to destabilize concepts and conventions about art, proposing a new gaze at objects and forms that are around us, building new senses and meanings.
Another important aspect of his work is the production of objects and sculptures that refer to the human body. These are forms that approach the surrealist imagination, with signs and traces of ambiguous and fragmented corporeity, causing both estrangement and familiarity. Desire, sensuality, sexuality, and eroticism are aspects that acquire materiality in his works and provoke in the spectator the perception of himself and his human condition, his body, sensations, experiences and memories.
35 x 22 x 2 cm
cotton thread on linen
Photo Galeria VermelhoEdgard de Souza’s work starts from the decontextualization of everyday objects. With this operation, the artist seeks to destabilize concepts and conventions about art, proposing a new gaze at objects and forms that are around us, building new senses and meanings.
Another important aspect of his work is the production of objects and sculptures that refer to the human body. These are forms that approach the surrealist imagination, with signs and traces of ambiguous and fragmented corporeity, causing both estrangement and familiarity. Desire, sensuality, sexuality, and eroticism are aspects that acquire materiality in his works and provoke in the spectator the perception of himself and his human condition, his body, sensations, experiences and memories.
A figure is contemplating the space, with both feet pointing backwards and with a pleasant and, at the same time, defiant attitude. The sculpture references the notion of the people from the “Antipodes”, the people from the other side, that was common in middle age Europe. This example of mistranslation shows how, in western society, the idea of the “other” implies some kind of negativeness or bizarreness. The “Antipodos” sculpture series shows proud antipodes, they represent the notion that we are all “others”.
32 x 32,5 x 27 cm
Bronze
Photo Galeria VermelhoA figure is contemplating the space, with both feet pointing backwards and with a pleasant and, at the same time, defiant attitude. The sculpture references the notion of the people from the “Antipodes”, the people from the other side, that was common in middle age Europe. This example of mistranslation shows how, in western society, the idea of the “other” implies some kind of negativeness or bizarreness. The “Antipodos” sculpture series shows proud antipodes, they represent the notion that we are all “others”.
280 x 210 x 18 cm
Acrylic on canvas Photo Studio Ivan ArgoteCromáticais a project that consists of a series of works that start from the idea of synesthesia to establish different relationships and organizational models of sensory associations. The rescue of traditions is a great vehicle for preserving memory, and that is why ancestral handicrafts such as textiles or ceramics are present in the project.
There are especially three colors that act as the conceptual epicenter of Cromática, and which refer to the three great kingdoms of nature: the animal kingdom of cochinilla (red), the plant kingdom of indigo (blue) and the mineral pigments that are used for yellow.
These three axes unfold a whole range of disciplines from connecting bridges that establish correspondences between technology, understanding and knowledge. The key element in this project is the sound of the work, the materials themselves and the sound of color.
In the series Acerca de [About] Candiani embroiders with naturally dyed threads phrases taken from popular wisdom, literature and common knowledge. Each set accumulates phrases referring to one of the colors present in Chromatic.
Variable dimentions
15 wooden embroidery hoops, cotton fabric embroidered with cotton thread
Photo Filipe BerndtCromáticais a project that consists of a series of works that start from the idea of synesthesia to establish different relationships and organizational models of sensory associations. The rescue of traditions is a great vehicle for preserving memory, and that is why ancestral handicrafts such as textiles or ceramics are present in the project.
There are especially three colors that act as the conceptual epicenter of Cromática, and which refer to the three great kingdoms of nature: the animal kingdom of cochinilla (red), the plant kingdom of indigo (blue) and the mineral pigments that are used for yellow.
These three axes unfold a whole range of disciplines from connecting bridges that establish correspondences between technology, understanding and knowledge. The key element in this project is the sound of the work, the materials themselves and the sound of color.
In the series Acerca de [About] Candiani embroiders with naturally dyed threads phrases taken from popular wisdom, literature and common knowledge. Each set accumulates phrases referring to one of the colors present in Chromatic.
15 wooden embroidery hoops, cotton fabric embroidered with cotton thread
WE THE ENEMY (2019) is a series comprised of 41 bronze sculptures based on representations of the devil drawn from art history: paintings that portray Satan in hell, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures that represent evil embodied.
Each figure defies normative moral standards of beauty, respectability, and behavior. Among this army of demons, there are characters who suggest sexual perversion – as typified by traditional catholic imagery.
Motta’s multi-disciplinary art practice documents the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation.
As a historian of untold narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies.
The complete set of WE THE ENEMY is now on view in Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols, Motta’s survey exhibition on view at The Wexner Center for the Arts.
Carlos Motta’s largest exhibition in the US to date celebrates the Colombian-born, New York–based artist’s commitment to radical difference and the debut of his Wex-commissioned project.
with wall plinth 30 x 13 x 13 cm with floor plinth 155 x 13 x13 cm
bronze + cement plinth
Photo Edouard FraipontWE THE ENEMY (2019) is a series comprised of 41 bronze sculptures based on representations of the devil drawn from art history: paintings that portray Satan in hell, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures that represent evil embodied.
Each figure defies normative moral standards of beauty, respectability, and behavior. Among this army of demons, there are characters who suggest sexual perversion – as typified by traditional catholic imagery.
Motta’s multi-disciplinary art practice documents the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation.
As a historian of untold narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies.
The complete set of WE THE ENEMY is now on view in Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols, Motta’s survey exhibition on view at The Wexner Center for the Arts.
Carlos Motta’s largest exhibition in the US to date celebrates the Colombian-born, New York–based artist’s commitment to radical difference and the debut of his Wex-commissioned project.
WE THE ENEMY (2019) is a series comprised of 41 bronze sculptures based on representations of the devil drawn from art history: paintings that portray Satan in hell, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures that represent evil embodied.
Each figure defies normative moral standards of beauty, respectability, and behavior. Among this army of demons, there are characters who suggest sexual perversion – as typified by traditional catholic imagery.
Motta’s multi-disciplinary art practice documents
the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation.
As a historian of untold
narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies.
The complete set of WE THE ENEMY is now on view
in Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols, Motta’s survey exhibition on view at The Wexner Center for the Arts.
Carlos Motta’s largest exhibition in the US to date celebrates the Colombian-born, New York–based artist’s commitment to radical difference and the debut of his Wex-commissioned project.
bronze, concrete, iron and wooden inner structure
WE THE ENEMY (2019) is a series comprised of 41 bronze sculptures based on representations of the devil drawn from art history: paintings that portray Satan in hell, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures that represent evil embodied.
Each figure defies normative moral standards of beauty, respectability, and behavior. Among this army of demons, there are characters who suggest sexual perversion – as typified by traditional catholic imagery.
Motta’s multi-disciplinary art practice documents
the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation.
As a historian of untold
narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies.
The complete set of WE THE ENEMY is now on view
in Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols, Motta’s survey exhibition on view at The Wexner Center for the Arts.
Carlos Motta’s largest exhibition in the US to date celebrates the Colombian-born, New York–based artist’s commitment to radical difference and the debut of his Wex-commissioned project.
WE THE ENEMY (2019) is a series comprised of 41 bronze sculptures based on representations of the devil drawn from art history: paintings that portray Satan in hell, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures that represent evil embodied.
Each figure defies normative moral standards of beauty, respectability, and behavior. Among this army of demons, there are characters who suggest sexual perversion – as typified by traditional catholic imagery.
Motta’s multi-disciplinary art practice documents the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation.
As a historian of untold narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies.
The complete set of WE THE ENEMY is now on view in Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols, Motta’s survey exhibition on view at The Wexner Center for the Arts.
Carlos Motta’s largest exhibition in the US to date celebrates the Colombian-born, New York–based artist’s commitment to radical difference and the debut of his Wex-commissioned project.
with wall plinth 30 x 13 x 13 cm with floor plinth 155 x 13 x13 cm
bronze + cement plinth
Photo Edouard FraipontWE THE ENEMY (2019) is a series comprised of 41 bronze sculptures based on representations of the devil drawn from art history: paintings that portray Satan in hell, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures that represent evil embodied.
Each figure defies normative moral standards of beauty, respectability, and behavior. Among this army of demons, there are characters who suggest sexual perversion – as typified by traditional catholic imagery.
Motta’s multi-disciplinary art practice documents the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation.
As a historian of untold narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies.
The complete set of WE THE ENEMY is now on view in Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols, Motta’s survey exhibition on view at The Wexner Center for the Arts.
Carlos Motta’s largest exhibition in the US to date celebrates the Colombian-born, New York–based artist’s commitment to radical difference and the debut of his Wex-commissioned project.
WE THE ENEMY (2019) is a series comprised of 41 bronze sculptures based on representations of the devil drawn from art history: paintings that portray Satan in hell, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures that represent evil embodied.
Each figure defies normative moral standards of beauty, respectability, and behavior. Among this army of demons, there are characters who suggest sexual perversion – as typified by traditional catholic imagery.
Motta’s multi-disciplinary art practice documents the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation.
As a historian of untold narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies.
The complete set of WE THE ENEMY is now on view in Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols, Motta’s survey exhibition on view at The Wexner Center for the Arts.
Carlos Motta’s largest exhibition in the US to date celebrates the Colombian-born, New York–based artist’s commitment to radical difference and the debut of his Wex-commissioned project.
WE THE ENEMY (2019) is a series comprised of 41 bronze sculptures based on representations of the devil drawn from art history: paintings that portray Satan in hell, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures that represent evil embodied.
Each figure defies normative moral standards of beauty, respectability, and behavior. Among this army of demons, there are characters who suggest sexual perversion – as typified by traditional catholic imagery.
Motta’s multi-disciplinary art practice documents the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation.
As a historian of untold narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies.
The complete set of WE THE ENEMY is now on view in Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols, Motta’s survey exhibition on view at The Wexner Center for the Arts.
Carlos Motta’s largest exhibition in the US to date celebrates the Colombian-born, New York–based artist’s commitment to radical difference and the debut of his Wex-commissioned project.
The Mattress Mantras series is developed from a series of interventions using a variety of materials on recycled mattresses. The embroidered words are taken from porn movies, and on-line dating forums.
The works from The Mattresses Mantras series reveal love, pain, satisfaction and desire in the privacy of a mattress.
The Mattress Mantras series is developed from a series of interventions using a variety of materials on recycled mattresses. The embroidered words are taken from porn movies, and on-line dating forums.
The works from The Mattresses Mantras series reveal love, pain, satisfaction and desire in the privacy of a mattress.
The Mattress Mantras series is developed from a series of interventions using a variety of materials on recycled mattresses. The embroidered words are taken from porn movies, and on-line dating forums.
The works from The Mattresses Mantras series reveal love, pain, satisfaction and desire in the privacy of a mattress.
The Mattress Mantras series is developed from a series of interventions using a variety of materials on recycled mattresses. The embroidered words are taken from porn movies, and on-line dating forums.
The works from The Mattresses Mantras series reveal love, pain, satisfaction and desire in the privacy of a mattress.
The Mattress Mantras series is developed from a series of interventions using a variety of materials on recycled mattresses. The embroidered words are taken from porn movies, and on-line dating forums.
The works from The Mattresses Mantras series reveal love, pain, satisfaction and desire in the privacy of a mattress.
185 x 87 cm
Cotton thread embroidered on mattress
Photo Galeria VermelhoThe Mattress Mantras series is developed from a series of interventions using a variety of materials on recycled mattresses. The embroidered words are taken from porn movies, and on-line dating forums.
The works from The Mattresses Mantras series reveal love, pain, satisfaction and desire in the privacy of a mattress.
The Mattress Mantras series is developed from a series of interventions using a variety of materials on recycled mattresses. The embroidered words are taken from porn movies, and on-line dating forums.
The works from The Mattresses Mantras series reveal love, pain, satisfaction and desire in the privacy of a mattress.
The Mattress Mantras series is developed from a series of interventions using a variety of materials on recycled mattresses. The embroidered words are taken from porn movies, and on-line dating forums.
The works from The Mattresses Mantras series reveal love, pain, satisfaction and desire in the privacy of a mattress.
To address a recurring discussion of the relationship between word and image, language and reality, the America series deals with the three main languages of American colonization – Portuguese, Spanish and English – from the fact that, if European languages were one of the instruments of colonization, today, with the American dominion over the continent, English assumes the role of recolonizing language.
In the works, strikethrough manuscripts – the greatest graphic violence that a writing can suffer – emphasize the text as an image, materializing it in order to punctuate that the language , and therefore language, is something physical, which establishes much more than just verbal speech.
12 x 45 cm
2mm laser cut acrylic
Photo VermelhoTo address a recurring discussion of the relationship between word and image, language and reality, the America series deals with the three main languages of American colonization – Portuguese, Spanish and English – from the fact that, if European languages were one of the instruments of colonization, today, with the American dominion over the continent, English assumes the role of recolonizing language.
In the works, strikethrough manuscripts – the greatest graphic violence that a writing can suffer – emphasize the text as an image, materializing it in order to punctuate that the language , and therefore language, is something physical, which establishes much more than just verbal speech.
276 x 335 cm (polyptych composed of 07 parts)
Screen Print on fabric
Photo Galeria VermelhoIn Make me happy, make me sad, Argote addresses historical and political icons with a certain irreverence: bills with the face of rullers are placed on top of a mirror inside a base.
Depending on the angle from which the viewer observes such ruller, they might look smiling or with a sad face.
30 x 40 x 20 cm
100 Bolivar Fuerte bill folded, mirror, wood and plexiglass
Photo Galeria VermelhoIn Make me happy, make me sad, Argote addresses historical and political icons with a certain irreverence: bills with the face of rullers are placed on top of a mirror inside a base.
Depending on the angle from which the viewer observes such ruller, they might look smiling or with a sad face.