Both present at the last edition of the São Paulo Biennial, David Batchelor and João Paulo Feliciano are two artists whose work can be considered, in some way, complementary.
David Batchelor (1955) is one of the most consistent British artists of his generation: born in Scotland but based in London, he has exhibited in museums and galleries across Great Britain, Europe, and the Americas. Over the last decade, he has researched the effects of color in the modern city, producing a wide variety of works where he reuses industrial materials like carts, lightboxes, and plastic containers. His works are almost always simple and subtle, the result of extensive observations and small alterations in the studio. Batchelor published a fundamental book several years ago, “Chromophobia,” about the importance and symbolic meaning of color in the Western artistic tradition.
After years of significant experimentation in different fields (aside from artistic practice, he has also worked with music and design, being one of the organizers of the Lisbon Design Biennial, Experimenta), João Paulo Feliciano (1963) has been experiencing considerable critical success in recent years, with solo exhibitions, including at the Serralves Foundation in Porto. In his installations, Feliciano frequently aims to create environments or convey sensations through relatively simple elements, as demonstrated by his work at the last São Paulo Biennial, which consisted of an iridescent curtain covered with fake diamonds.
For the exhibition at Galeria Leme, the two artists will create site-specific works that dialogue both with each other and with the extremely suggestive space of the gallery (designed by Paulo Mendes da Rocha).
Some recent exhibitions by David Batchelor include: “Extreme Abstraction,” Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York; “Sodio y Asphalto,” Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City; 26th São Paulo Biennial; “Shiny Dirty,” Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. David Batchelor is represented by Wilkinson Gallery, London.
Some recent exhibitions by João Paulo Feliciano include: Museum of Contemporary Art of Serralves, Porto; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; 26th São Paulo Biennial. João Paulo Feliciano is represented by Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon.