Sonia Gomes / Marina Perez Simão

Past
Sep 3 – Oct 4, 2020
East Hampton

An exploration into the ambiguity of abstraction, the presentation features five recent and historical sculptures by Sonia Gomes, nine new paintings by Marina Perez Simão, and the artists’ first collaborative piece, synthesizing their distinct aesthetics as a singular whole employing oil paint and embroidery.

Sonia Gomes / Marina Perez Simão, an exhibition of recent works by two leading Brazilian artists, marks Gomes’ first exhibition with Pace since joining the gallery in June as well as Perez Simão’s first project-based collaboration with Pace.

Details

Sonia Gomes / Marina Perez Simão
Sep 3 – Oct 4, 2020

Gallery

68 Park Place
East Hampton

Above: Installation view, Sonia Gomes / Marina Perez Simão, Sep 3 – Oct 4, 2020, Pace Gallery, East Hampton © Sonia Gomes © Marina Perez Simāo

Press

Press Release

Connect

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Untitled by Marina Perez Simão — Marina Perez Simão, *Untitled*, 2020, oil on canvas, 31-1/2" × 39-3/8" (80 cm × 100 cm)

I always sought nonconformity with things that are established.

Sonia Gomes

I feel that there is a sort of narrative in my paintings. Passing from one element to the next is very important to me, the fluidity and ambivalence.

Marina Perez Simão

To inquire about the work of Sonia Gomes or Marina Perez Simão, please email inquiries@pacegallery.com.

Sonia Gomes

Sonia Gomes (b. 1948, Caetanópolis, Brazil) combines secondhand textiles with everyday materials, such as furniture, driftwood, and wire, to create abstract sculptures that reclaim Afro-Brazilian traditions and feminized crafts from the margins of history.

Juxtaposing tensile and slack forms, Gomes’s contorted sculptures exude a corporeality and dynamism that she attributes to her love of popular Brazilian dances. At the same time, her work’s vitality evokes the enigmatic animism of sacred objects used in the spiritual practices of Brazil’s African diaspora—rites that the artist witnessed her grandmother, a shaman, perform during her childhood. Born in the Brazilian city of Caetanópolis, a once-important manufacturing center for textiles, Gomes uses found or gifted fabrics, which, according to her, “bring the history of the people that they belonged to.” “I give a new significance to them,” she adds. Her assemblages thus tie Brazil’s historical trajectory to the long-disregarded narratives of women, people of color, and countless anonymous individuals.

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Marina Perez Simão

Marina Perez Simão (b. 1981,Vitória, Brazil) has developed a working process based fundamentally on the accumulation and juxtaposition of memories and images. By combining personal experiences and multiple references stemming from fields such as philosophy, literature, and journalism, the artist collects certain narratives in order to edit them through pictorial means that do not belong to any predefined language; rather, they develop with an organic practice, which combines thematic density and a delicate treatment.

Simão uses a variety of techniques, such as collage, drawing, and oil painting, as starting points in order to marry interior and exterior landscapes, she composes visual journeys that sometimes traverse the unknown, the abstract and the nebulous, but also include visions and memories. Simão’s work leads us into territories in which we are confronted with that which is ungraspable, with that elusive and unspeakable instant that poets strive so hard to capture with their words.

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