São Paulo, Brasil
24/11/2012 - 24/01/2013

The contemporaneity of Amelia Toledo’s work, accompanied by her production concern, is summarized in the name of the exhibition The Current Look, which will be shown on November 24 at Dan Galeria. Works produced during the artist’s more than 50 years of career may be viewed or reviewed in their diversity of platforms, substances, and experiences.

The use of the different subjects makes Amelia’s work completely plural. From her kinetic jewels, metal, stone or bronze adornments that deal with the space formed by the void, to The World of Mirrors, an installation that allows the reflection of the environment and of the work itself, the relationship between the materials and their encounter is what has always intrigued Amelia, as they provoke a series of experiences for those who observe them. “My work has everything to do with this diversity of materials and the property of each substance. It is the behavior of the materials, their techniques and properties that arouse my interest”.

In addition to the eye, Amelia’s penetrable works also allow the use of the spectator’s body, who begins to participate in the work while strolling through it. The movement of bodies in front of the enormous fabrics of works such as Oceanic or Caderno de Terra makes us see different paintings. In this sense, the penetrable ones are “a range of cold colors”, which suggest the opening space for the observer’s eyes.

Amelia’s public works, such as the Chromatic Program on the Avenida 23 de Maio viaduct, and the Parque das Cores do Escurso in Vila Maria, both in São Paulo, also have the same purpose of appropriating the work by the viewer, in addition to bringing unconventional materials to that place to the public space. “Public work is very important, because it remains,” adds Amelia, who considers the Underground Landscape, a project at the Arcoverde subway station in Rio de Janeiro, to be her most complete public work.

Works from the Horizontes series, a mix of painting and sculpture, will also be present at the exhibition, which runs until January 24, 2013. The investigation of landscape space in pictorial space is evident in works such as Horizon Slice, formed by plates that reflect the landscape, producing a vertical and suspended horizon.

The self-taught artist was born in a cradle that mixed her mother’s artistic skills and her father’s scientific production, and it was from this school that Amelia began to admire the materials and make works of art from them. In addition to the renowned works produced since the 70s, the exhibition will present two unpublished works by the artist: “The exhibition is a collection of the work and there are new works that I am thinking about now and haven’t done yet. I want space to become one.”