This Week in Art in Brazil: April 24, 2024

Original source (on modern site) | Article images: [1] [2]

by Brian Hieggelke | April 24, 2024

Anna Maria Maiolino occupation of former gardener's house rooms, basement and attic in the Karlsaue park (Kassel)/Photo: David Gómez Fontanills, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Anna Maria Maiolino First Brazilian to Win Golden Lion at Venice

SP- Arte writes: "The Venice Biennale's biggest prize goes to Italian-Brazilian Anna Maria Maiolino, 81. The Golden Lion [was] awarded this Saturday, April 20. The ceremony takes place at the historic Ca' Giustinian palace, home of the Venice Biennale, where Turkish artist Nil Yalter will also be honored with the award." Here is the Biennale's announcement. SP-Arte continues, "The Golden Lion recognizes and pays homage to her more than six decades of career, marked by the languages of photography, performance, sculpture, installation and drawing. This is the first time that a Brazilian artist has received the award."

José Roberto Aguilar Joins Dan Galeria 

Dan Galeria posts this on Instagram: "The visual artist, cultural manager, writer, composer and performer is considered one of the greatest living exponents of contemporary Brazilian culture, with a vast artistic and cultural production." According to Mário Schenberg, quoted at International Center for the Arts of the Americas and Documents Project, "Painter, poet, and multimedia artist José Roberto Aguilar began his career in the fifties as a member—along with musician Jorge Mautner and writer José Agrippino de Paula—of the Kaos movement. A pioneer of Brazilian 'nova figuração,' he took part in the show 'Opinião 65,' making paintings using an air gun. He lived in London and New York in the early sixties, producing videos and participating in the Banda Performática." More here.

Venice Becomes Brazil

Select reviews of the Adriano Pedrosa-curated Biennale so far: 

The Guardian: "Marked by unrest and protests, the 60th Venice Biennale leaves us uncertain of art's ability to draw us together in a world in crisis. It is filled with the clamour of conflicting voices and doubtful purpose." 

Financial Times: "Pedrosa's thoughtful, serious approach showcases the joys and opportunities, as well as the trauma, of displacement and marvellously balances aesthetic pleasure and politics."

ArtNews: "It's interesting Pedrosa views his main show as a provocation, because to me, it didn't seem so shocking. Much of what's in it is really elegant and quite beautiful—the art doesn't seem designed to trigger." 

Art Newspaper: "'Foreigners Everywhere' is a show of polarities: the intimacy and tenderness of community, family, love and sex; the violence of colonial histories, extraction, migration policies in rich nations, homophobia and racism, and war. This is the vital tension at the heart of a deeply stimulating Biennale."

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