Opening 25 September, 6.30 pm
On view 26 September – 8 November 2014
Peep-Hole presents the first solo show in an Italian institution by the artist Adriano Costa.
The research of Adriano Costa moves from the narrative potential of everyday life, that flow of elements composed of common, domestic and leftover objects which he juxtaposes and reassembles in essential compositions, with a strong poetic dimension. Interested in probing the moment in which the object is no longer defined as a work, the Brazilian artist investigates the different aspects of the visible and the nature of materials, combining solidity and fragility and juxtaposing shapes, motifs and colors to create geometric progressions possessing emotional and musical qualities, intuitive and spontaneous, organic and vital rhythms, close in form to the principles of Neo-Concrete and Minimal Art.
The result of gradual adjustments, with a light, random appearance, Costa’s works – which range from three-dimensional paintings in a large format to environmental installations, sculptures and photographic works – express, precisely in their delicate formal balance and anti-monumental stance, a critical position regarding the contemporary world, applying the pairing of abstraction and the ready-made as a path of reflection on questions of identity, world socio-economic issues and the art market.
In the project devised for Peep-Hole, titled La Commedia dell’Arte and inspired by the historic Italian theatrical form that grew up in the streets, whose legacy has been somehow picked up by the experience of theTheater of the Oppressed founded in Brazil by Augusto Boal, Adriano Costa develops three parallel paths focused on the theme of invisibility, working conditions in capitalist societies, the status of objects as merchandise, all against the backdrop of the controversial rela-tions of colonial exploitation between Europe and South America, with their im-pact on migrant workers.
The exhibition considers the border zone between visibility and invisibility em-bodied by these persons who do not officially exist, yet contribute to the econo-mies of the countries where they illegally reside. “The legal and political invisibil-ity of this gigantic portion of the population becomes the basis to trace a parallel with my personal situation: that of a Latin American artist working in Europe” (A. Costa), with all the consequences this reflection can imply in terms of post-colonial discourse and analysis of the conditions of the art market.
Adriano Costa (born in 1975 in a São Paulo, where he lives and works) has shown work in many exhibitions, including Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Guggenheim, New York; Imagine Brazil, Musee D’Art Contem-porain de Lyon, Lyon, France and Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway, 2014;Correspondências, Centro Cultural dos Correios, Rio de Janeiro and Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil; Convite à Viagem, Rumos Artes Visuais, Itaú Cultural São Paulo, Brazil; Time Space Poker Face, Be-Part, Waregen, Belgium 2013; Mythologies, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 2011. Solo shows include:Touch me I am geometrically sensitive, Sadie Coles HQ, London; Adriano Costa, Zabludowicz Collection, London, 2014; Mar Morto Provisório, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria, 2013; Crisis Doesn’t Matter If You Love Me, Galeria Nuno Cen-teno, Oporto, Portugal; Plantation, Mendes Wood, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012;Programa Anual de Exposições, Centro Cultural São Paulo, Brazil, 2010; Black Barroco, Galeria Polinesia, São Paulo, Brazil, 2009.
Adriano Costa and Peep-Hole would like to thank Antonia Monopoli, ALA Milano Onlus.