Pablo Lobato: Autumn, despite everything

Luciana Brito Galeria is pleased to present Outono, apesar de tudo [Autumn, Despite Everything], the second solo show by Minas Gerais artist Pablo Lobato (Bom Despacho, Minas Gerais 1976) in São Paulo. Curated by Júlio Martins, the exhibition begins on May 20 (Saturday) and features the artist’s most recent production, re-echoing the periods he experienced in South Korea and in Japan, in 2016.

These works, presented with exclusivity at the show, take the form of objects, installations, publications and sculptures, bringing together a wide range of materials such as paper, fabric, seeds, coated copper wire, and cord, giving rise to compositions that are both simple and complex. In a strikingly peculiar way, the apparent plainness of the works beckons for the viewer’s sensitivity.

A highlight of the artworks presented in the exhibition is the series Kimonos, in which the artist resorts to Hanji, an age-old type of paper developed by Korean artisans, to compose a sort of collage with cuts and folds. The schemes reflected in these papers manifest a gamut of the artist’s interests: the line that reveals the organic interior of the form, the intuitive use of colors, the transparency and lightness with which the material exhibits the gestures of the cut, the condition of the fold and the traversing of layers.

The work A yard of moshi, please, which will be shown in the gallery’s annex, presents an arrangement of pieces of a fibrous fabric resembling linen, called moshi. As suggested by the title, in its formal composition the work evidences the possible discrepancies in the measure of a yard. The various patterns, along with the vibrant colors of the translucent surfaces, results in an imprecise geometry of fabrics that reveals a unique plasticity.

The show will also be the occasion of the release of the new version of the artist’s book RUA, especially printed in a limited, numbered edition of 50 copies bound in fabric, and accompanied by four exclusive prints of images made in Korea and Japan. The images in the book were collected over a span of three years, in different countries. In his practice, Pablo Lobato evokes and encounters arrangements in their commonplace dimensions, which go nearly unperceived in our everyday urban visual experience. They are images that bear a strange familiarity, perceived through the artist’s formal sensitivity.

The notions of cutting, present in Pablo Lobato’s artworks, approach the gesture of detachment. This measure, in which the movement takes place in an organic, complex and reciprocal way, without localizing one or another subject, is what seems to guide his new works. Their articulations on the basis of encounters, startlements and distinct times bear the presence of a hand that runs its fingers tactilely over the surface, without seeking to control it. The overall tone of this exhibition is given by the sensitive treatment that liberates meanings based on mundane materialities.

About Pablo Lobato The artist was born in 1976, in Bom Despacho (MG). One of the creators of Teia – Centro de Pesquisa Audiovisual, in Belo Horizonte, he directed the feature-length film Acidente, which won the award for Best Ibero-American Documentary at the 22nd Guadalajara International Film Festival, Guadalajara, Mexico (2007). He was selected for the Bolsa Pampulha project (2008), was awarded a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, New York (2008–2009) and won the Prêmio Marcantonio Vilaça, Funarte (2009–2010). He has presented his works in art institutions in Brazil and abroad, including at MAM (SP), MoMA (NY), Museo Tamayo (Mexico City), Akademie der Kunst (Berlin), and New Museum (NY). In 2012, his work was shown at Luciana Brito Galeria in a solo show entitled Do Corte. In 2016, the artist held the solo show Da Natureza das Coisas at MAR (Museu de Artes do Rio), in Rio de Janeiro. That same year, the artist released the first edition of the book RUA and participated in an artist’s residency in Seoul, South Korea.

About the curator, Júlio Martins
Júlio Martins is a curator, art historian and editor. He holds an MA in visual art from the School of Fine Arts of UFMG, as well as a BA in history from UFMG and in visual art from Escola Guignard, UEMG. In 2009 he participated in the Programme Courants du Monde, at Maison des Cultures du Monde (Paris). From 2008 through 2011 he was the general curator of Museu Inimá de Paula (Belo Horizonte). He was a traveling curator for Rumos Artes Visuais 2011–2013, Instituto Itaú Cultural (São Paulo). He participated in the curatorial workshop of the 31st Bienal de São Paulo and in the curatorship residency Ações Curatoriais in Florianópolis. Together with Paulo Herkenhoff he organized the exhibition Livro e Palavra de Artista at MAR, Museu de Arte do Rio. His curatorships have most notably included those for the exhibitions savoir-forme, by Stéphane Vigny, Iluminuras, by Marco Antonio Mota, O que pode a expiração, by Pablo Lobato, Walking Papers, by Marcos Brias, Campos da ação noturna, by Carolina Cordeiro, Drawing to no end, by Bruno Cançado, Convite à Viagem – Rumos Artes Visuais, Área de: by C L Salvaro, Modos de usar: at MAES, cúando.tú for mileva, at GAEU-UFES, Áreas de Intermitências, by André Hauck, pela superfície das páginas…, at Espaço Cultural Marcantonio Vilaça and through the surface of the pages…, a group show of Brazilian artists at DRCLAS, Harvard University.