Art Basel 2021: Booth L24

Bergamin & Gomide and Galeria Luisa Strina are teaming up on the occasion of the very important return of the Art Basel’s in-person show. For this unprecedented partnership, the galleries bring a comprehensive selection, with works dating from the 1950s to the current period. Among them are historical works such as Grupo Frente (1956), by Hélio Oiticica, Bicho (1960), by Lygia Clark, The Dealer, by Antonio Dias (1972), and Estojo de Geometria (Neutralização por Oposição e/ou Adição) (1975), by Cildo Meireles, whose a watercolor and a painting will also be exhibited – which, according to the artist, is the way he finds to express his impulses, without blocks, and with a minimum of materiality.

The presentation prepared for 2021 features an important selection of works by Anna Maria Maiolino from the 2000s, including the canvas Sem Título (2006), from the series Ações Matéricas, and the molded plaster sculpture Entre o Dentro e o Fora (2012). By the artist Fernanda Gomes, will be exhibited a rare 1993 work in cardboard, metal, and leather and two other pieces with her representative palette of whites and radical vision of color. Two temperas by Mira Schendel will also be presented this year. Both canvases are impeccable examples where the artist achieves the corporeal aspect through her dense surfaces.

Amélia Toledo, Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, and Marcel Broodthaers bring, each in their own way, the aquatic universe to the booth: in Colheita (ou Natureza Morta) (1981), Toledo shows the action of time as an agent of change and intersection over things – the glass bottle, once thrown into the sea, wear out and gather elements of this environment. Lorenzato appropriates the tropical landscape by painting scenes where time does not pass, but surrounds. Broodthaers plays with the limits between language and representation in Les Poissons (1975) when, instead of drawing fish and seafood on canvas, he prints their names, leaving it up to us to see in "les crevettes" the shrimp, and in "la morue" the codfish.

In the works of Marcius Galan and Alexandre da Cunha, everyday objects, such as rubbers and mops, gain a new status in Desenho Jogo (2021) and Kentucky - Frittilaria (2021). Tonico Lemos Auad's Sem título (2013) takes up manual linen embroidery techniques and constructs a boat reflected by the waters. Putting into question the conversion systems and possibilities of reproduction of images, Juan Araújo reproduces in painting a photograph of the James King House, a modern and tropical construction designed by Paulo Mendes da Rocha.

Francisco Brennand, Maria Lira Marques, and Alex Cerveny will be featured, respectively, through vitrified ceramic pieces, paintings that Lira calls Meus Bichos do Sertão, and three canvases made by Cerveny that play with different narratives and symbologies: Oh! Darling (2017), I Feel For You (2020) and Irmãos Coragem (2021).

Thus, bringing together such representative and distinctive works produced since the second half of the XX century, the partnership between Galeria Luisa Strina and Bergamin & Gomide demonstrates, among other things, the power of reinvention and persistence of art, which remains alive, vibrant, and in dialogue despite so many challenges, and whose circulation and interest are never lost.