ART CITIES:London-Beatriz Milhazes
The Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes fuses modernist styles of painting with the emblems of her cultural heritage. Her abstract compositions are typically layered with imagery, particularly floral designs and ornate circular medallions. Milhazes draws upon local visual traditions as diverse as Baroque colonial art, folk styles of decorative painting and the mass-produced textiles, wallpaper, and ceramic tile of her everyday surroundings.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: White Cube Gallery Archive
The centerpiece of Beatriz Milhazes’ solo exhibition “Rio Azul” is her first tapestry created especially for the show at White Cube. Inspired by Roberto Burle Marx, the tapestry entitled “Rio azul” (2016-18), is 16 x 2.7 m, depicting a series of abstract biomorphic and geometric shapes that swell and bloom with color, made over a period of two years with master weavers at Pinton Mill in France,. “Tapestry is an art form that can be part of people’s lives, in an intimate way” Milhazes says. In a new series of paintings, Milhazes continues to employ a bright, riotous color palette with Neo-Concretist and geometric shapes. In “O grande dia” (2016-17), interlocking cog-like shapes, which suggest the interior mechanism of a watch or machine are set against expanding starburst-like lines to create a restless and energetic surface. Likewise, in “Sonho Tropical” (2017), a series of incomplete semi-circles and circles as well as varied linear patterning draws the eye from edge to edge of the canvas. “Mariola” and “Marola” (both 2010-15), are large tri-dimensional works, whilst in harmony with her paintings, prints and collages, they propose a novel and riveting perceptive element. Her characteristic motifs such as: circle, flower and the arabesque, fill up the room, establishing a new type of corporeal, physical relationship among them. This relationship is also determined by precise intervals among the elements as well as by the viewer’s perspective. Depending on the angle the works are being observed, a different work emerges, as well as a concrete experience, in which the body of the sculpture is interrelated to that of the viewer’s. The installation “Gamboa II” (2015-16) comprises five, highly complex and densely worked sculptures which incorporate a seemingly infinite number of light pastel-coloured plastic objects into chandelier-like objects. Also Milhazes’ exhibits a new series of small-scale paper collages, also using overlaid elements to create equally dense and complex compositions.
Info: White Cube Gallery, 144-152 Bermondsey Street, London, Duration: 18/4-1/7/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, Sun 12:00-18:00, http://whitecube.com
