Alexandre Brandão

19/02/2013 - 16/03/2013

In his first solo exhibition at Galeria Leme, the artist Alexandre Brandão presents a group of works that have as central elements Light, Geometry, and the transition of coal and graphite from drawing tools to elementary parts of the work.

In Crash, composed by table lamps mounted on music stands, the artist inserts snips that interfere with shadows in the circular shape of the light projected on the wall. The lamps work as devices that fabricate geometric forms, creating a relation between agent and result through light and space. In the work Áurea, two lamps standing in front of each other and separated by a thin tulle curtain seem to let the projection and the focus floating, and as the fabric moves, different interactions happen between both of the lights and their focuses.

In the works with coal, Brandão looks for creating straight-line geometric forms – from the cube to different formats of polyhedrons – that interact with the paper or the space in different ways, but always as in a game of dice. In Big Bang the cubes are cut by the artist from a rough coal piece and positioned in a box with white paper at the base. When many times thrown in this box, the coal creates a different drawing at all times.

In Caixa de Jóias the coal pieces are cut into geometric shapes that resemble diamonds (both substances composed by carbon, but in different purities) and thrown in the junction between walls and floor, creating a drawing in the space. In this work, the drawing tool, which is the coal, represents the form in itself, once is cut geometrically, and by drawing in space it becomes at the same time agent, action and result.

In the work Lápis, the graphite appears by the pealing of a pencil to it’s last splinter. The artist takes all the wood involving the matter utilized for the drawing, and the process of sharping, that precedes the act of drawing, becomes a process of imagery creation.

About the artist:

Alexandre Brandão (Belo Horizonte, Brasil, 1979). Lives and works in São Paulo.

Graduated in Arts in 2005, Alexandre Brandão has participated in group exhibitions such as the 17th Contemporary Art international Festival SESC- Videobrasil (2011), Sesc Belenzinho, São Paulo, SP, Sismógrafo, Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, MG (2011), V Bienal Interamericana de Videoarte (2010), Washington D.C., USA, e do KunstFilm Biennale Köln, Kino in der Brücke / Kölnischer Kunstverein (2005), Koln, Germany. In 2012 Alexandre participated in the PIESP – Escola São Paulo’s Independent Program for Artists and Curators, under the direction of Adriano Pedrosa