04 Oct Exploded view

Source Credit:  Content and images from Wall Street International Magazine by .  Read the original article - https://www.meer.com/en/83559-exploded-view

Nara Roesler New York is pleased to present Exploded view, André
Griffo’s first solo show in the United States. With a critical essay
by Lúcia Stumpf, the show brings together around 12 works by the
artist developed over the last year specifically the exhibition.

With a background in Architecture, André Griffo considers
the representation of elaborate architectural spaces to be an
integral part of his poetics. “The main theme of my research is
religion”, says the artist, who through his work seeks to reflect on
how religion has been used as a tool for control and domination
throughout history. Griffo uses religious architecture to examine
the historical relationship between the presence and power of
the church from Brazil’s colonial past to the present day, where
neo-Pentecostal pastors use religion to influence politics, while
simultaneously being linked to paramilitary groups.

The exhibition title refers to the technical drawing of the
same name, which consists of a diagram showing a relationship
or sequence of assembly of various parts in a set. This concept
is present in the exhibition through a sequence of five works
created by the artist; Farm management instructions X, part of the
eponymous series of paintings, represents the interior space of an
old church, with an altar in the center, paintings on the ceiling, and
a series of ornamental elements that emphasize the sacred figure
located on the altar. In the artist’s words: “the sacredness of this
type of figure lies not only in itself, but in all the ornaments that
highlight it. Their importance is so great that they often stand out
more than the figure itself, and can even play their part”.

The main painting, however, does not only feature sacred
elements but is located within a larger space, possibly a large farm.
There are no human representations on a scale proportional to the
space, except for a portrait on the wall of a man, possibly the owner
of the place. On the floor, however, miniature figures are scattered
about, reminiscent of slaves working tirelessly. In addition to
the play on scales between space and characters, the room is
composed of several plants historically used by the enslaved
people in religious rituals. These elements refer to the fact that
having been enslaved, forcibly removed from their homeland,
and cut off from their customs, they could not exercise their faith
freely notably having objects and icons confiscated. As a result,
slaves had to adapt aspects of their original beliefs to their reality
in Brazil, and began to use local plants as proxies, using them as a
means of representing their deities.

From this large painting, Griffo produced a series of
other related works, consisting of fragments of the original
composition that the artist ended up highlighting and
representing individually. While the original canvas depicts
the entire architectural space, in the following works the artist
focuses on the details of the original composition, such as the
apse, the altar, and the image of the Saint himself.

References to art history in a broader sense are present
in other works in the show, such as Constantino’s sleep and
Constantino’s dream. The titles refer to a 15th-century fresco
by Piero della Francesca, in which the painter recounts the
conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine to Catholicism.
This is said to have happened through a dream, in which
the ruler saw a cross carried by an angel. Touched by the
image, he went into a decisive battle carrying the object and,
victorious, embracing the new faith once and for all. According
to Griffo, however: “This version of Constantine’s conversion
was discarded in the Middle Ages. Possibly even Piero, when
he painted it, no longer believed the story, which ended up
becoming a legend. It turned out that this conversion occurred
much more out of political expediency, which draws parallels
with the present day, where many political leaders use fables
and fantasies to justify mixing religion and politics to gain
supporters”. While in The sleep of Constantine André Griffo
rereads the panel painted by the Renaissance master, in The
dream of Constantine the artist tries to imagine what the Roman
Emperor would have dreamt of. Based on Piero’s composition,
Griffo created an abstract painting of enigmatic patches of color,
the first abstract painting of his career. Although abstract, it is
intensely related to the other canvas, since he used the same
chromatic palette as the others and echoes its horizon line.

The dialog between the two –and the three-dimensional also
appears in the painting from the series The miniature salesman,
which depicts the interior of a subway station, where a salesman
presents a series of small miniature dolls laid out in front of
him. These dolls consist of figures such as evangelical pastors,
policemen, and militiamen executing innocent people, sacred
images, and other societal players responsible for sparking and
maintaining violence, notably in Rio de Janeiro. In Miniatures,
the artist creates 80 plastic figurines that correspond to those
represented in the painting. While some are hanging, others are
arranged under a tarp, as if they were for sale.

The show also features a rare personal, or biographical work.
80’s, made during Griffo’s residency at the Wassaic Project in
New York, depicts the artist’s brother inside the bathroom of the
LGBT Center in New York –a space marked by a wall work by the
artist Keith Haring made in 1989– which refers to the moment of
deep anguish experienced by the LGBT community in the world,
due to the AIDS epidemic, and consequently its stigmatization
throughout the 1980s. Haring’s painting coincides with when the
artist’s brother left his hometown of Barra Mansa and migrated to
the United States to be able to live his sexuality freely. When he
visited the place, Griffo immediately remembered his brother, who
had directly experienced this moment and survived the repression
of society and the condition of an immigrant.

Conceiving architecture as an element conceived to shelter
social relations, as well as painting as an illusionist tool, Griffo
crosses these two medias not as a mere formal exercise, but
as a way of tracing social structures and the problems arising
from them, bringing in both historical elements and seemingly
harmless everyday facts.

André Griffo’s (b. 1979, Barra Mansa, Brazil) practice focuses
on painting and its historical relationships with architectural
representation. Rather than engaging in grand activist
discourses, Griffo invites the viewer to pay attention to the
minute details of his images, which depict the many violences
that have given shape to the narratives relating to the history of
Brazil and its ruins. In this sense, his canvases are complex visual
archives in which the most diverse elements coexist, forming
relationships that reframe and deepen the criticisms they
present. Griffo’s work deals with the critique of power structures,
particularly the falsehoods they create to maintain control over
individuals. Among these, the artist discusses the lingering
effects of the economy of slavery on the historical formation of
Brazil and the various mechanisms commonly used by religious
institutions to subjugate their followers.

Griffo uses his background in architecture to create spaces
where references to both historical and contemporary settings
coexist. These spaces, usually deserted, are inhabited by
traces, symbols, and signs, that highlight the permanence
and influence of the past in current sociocultural issues. His
production intertwines the factual and the fictional, exploring
connections between the History of Art and Architecture and
social issues, both Brazilian and international. By overlapping
different temporalities and their complex realities, Griffo’s work
denounces constitutive elements of society, and testifies to the
immutability of things.

André Griffo lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Recent solo exhibitions include: Voarei com as asas que os
urubus me deram, at Nara Roesler (2022), in São Paulo, Brazil;
Objetos sobre arquitetura gasta, at Centro Cultural São Paulo
(CCSP) (2017), in São Paulo, Brazil; Intervenções pendentes em
estruturas mistas, at Palácio das Artes (2015), in Belo Horizonte,
Brazil; Predileção pela alegoria, at Galeria Athena (2015), in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Main group shows are: Sobre os ombros
de gigantes, at Nara Roesler (2021), in São Paulo, Brazil; 21a
Bienal de Arte Contemporânea SESC VídeoBrasil (2019), in São
Paulo, Brazil; Intervenções, at Museu da República (2016), in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; ao amor do público, at Museu de Arte do
Rio (MAR) (2015), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Aparições, at Caixa
Cultural (2015), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Instabilidade estável,
at Paço das Artes (2013), in São Paulo, Brazil. His works are
including in important institutional collections, such as: Denver
Art Museum, Denver, USA; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo,
Brazil; Instituto PIPA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museu de Arte do
Rio (MAR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Source Credit:  Content and images from Wall Street International Magazine by .  Read the original article - https://www.meer.com/en/83559-exploded-view