The work questions extractivism in opposition to the production of traditional handmade pieces. The work comments on the increasing demand for metals such as steel, valued by industry at the expense of environmental and cultural preservation.

MORENINHA, NEGRINHA, POBREZINHA [Dark, Black, Poor litle girl] is a reinterpretation of Gross’s work A negra [Black Woman], from 1997 scaled to 1/10 of the original piece, and so it multiplies in 10 copies. Its title refers to 3 suites from Villa Lobos’s short piano pieces titled Prole do Bebê [baby’s offspring]- the number 2: Moreninha, a boneca de massa [dark little girl – the clay doll]]; the number 5: Negrinha, a boneca de pau[black little girl – the wooden doll]; the number 6: [poor little girl – the rag doll].

“A writing with the suggestion of an X (an X marks: here, an X cancels: no). This is a suggestion, the signal not being configured, whose risks, oriented to different spatial senses, are dispersed. Strictly speaking, it is not a question of scratches or painting. Nor is it necessary to speak of an object, despite the fact that the drawing is constructed with metal shafts painted in black and enhanced by the tensions obtained through the ambiguity between the tracing of the hand and the molten material. […] Moment of concentration, resulting from the superposition of several agglomerated layers. It is the necessary counterpoint to the imaginary webs that entangle man in space”.

excerpt from “Carmela Gross” – Ana Maria de Moraes Belluzzo in ARTISTAS brasileiros na 20ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo. São Paulo: Fundação Bienal: Ed. Marca D’Água, 1989

Each piece in the “Dissections” series looks like a precise, machine-cut fragment of an ancient technology. They are parts of a discontinued construction method that uses the same land that will support the building as material for its composition. The pieces appear to have been taken from a historical site and are displayed as artifacts in an anthropological museum.

Each piece in the “Dissections” series looks like a precise, machine-cut fragment of an ancient technology. They are parts of a discontinued construction method that uses the same land that will support the building as material for its composition. The pieces appear to have been taken from a historical site and are displayed as artifacts in an anthropological museum.

For the Signal Restorations series, Ximena Garrido-Lecca reproduces electronic circuits drafted on perfboards (sheets used for prototyping circuits). She selected a series of circuit boards that had sensors which used elements from nature to perform different tasks, replacing their components (resistors, capacitors, etc.) with objects used as ritual offerings to the elements in Peru and Mexico.

PERDIDAS are compositions formed from tree bark cast in aluminum. They are almost-forms, hinting at incompleteness. They are primitive masses, grouping together like residues from many tactile experiments. The compositions of PERDIDAS seek scale, rhythms, gaps, equivalences, and differences in constructing each group.

In 1992, Carmela Gross presented the solo show “Drawings” at MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo).
The exhibition brought together a set of works called “SOLO,” made with graphite and resin on handmade paper, with irregular edges. Later, Gross decided to fold some drawings in a regular way. This is how the work is presented today: as closed notes, condensed bodies of work, which reveal traces of their initial compositions.
Moreover, the reworking of the piece juxtaposes a formerly gestural and expressionist approach with one that is now characterized by geometric precision and restraint.

In 1992, Carmela Gross presented the solo show “Drawings” at MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo).
The exhibition brought together a set of works called “SOLO,” made with graphite and resin on handmade paper, with irregular edges. Later, Gross decided to fold some drawings in a regular way. This is how the work is presented today: as closed notes, condensed bodies of work, which reveal traces of their initial compositions.
Moreover, the reworking of the piece juxtaposes a formerly gestural and expressionist approach with one that is now characterized by geometric precision and restraint.

This series of works continues the artist’s investigation into the role of copper in Peru’s economy, where this natural resource is exported as a raw material for use in tech industries. These new works incorporate a series of abstract symbols based on different modernist corporate logos used by diverse industries and corporate entities. By using these geometric symbols in a traditional woven form, Garrido-Lecca questions the relation between these modern images, tied to the engines of modernization, the global economy, and their links to pre-Columbian abstraction.

This series of works continues the artist’s investigation into the role of copper in Peru’s economy, where this natural resource is exported as a raw material for use in tech industries. These new works incorporate a series of abstract symbols based on different modernist corporate logos used by diverse industries and corporate entities. By using these geometric symbols in a traditional woven form, Garrido-Lecca questions the relation between these modern images, tied to the engines of modernization, the global economy, and their links to pre-Columbian abstraction.