Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel and Gomide&Co are proud to announce the joint representation of the estate of León Ferrari (Buenos Aires, 1920 – 2013). One of the most important artists of the 20th century, Ferrari developed a provocative, singular body of work structured on experimentation with supports and materials, bearing strong political content. Akin to a surrealist imagination, his oeuvre, pioneered Latin-American conceptualism and established dialogs with abstraction and pop art.
The co-representation of Ferrari proposes a renewal of his legacy. Together, the galleries aim to expand the reach and influence of his practice within the contemporary debate. In the upcoming Paris+ par Art Basel, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel presents a selection of Ferrari’s works in dialog with recent works from other artists in the gallery’s program. Gomide & Co. will also bring iconic works by Ferrari to their stand at Art Basel Miami Beach in December.
Constantly questioning Latin American authoritarianism, Ferrari is a reference in the art of contestation. His anticlericalism subverts sacred figures to denounce the Catholic Church’s role in the systematic political violence carried out in the name of religious dogmatism. His vehement defense of human rights led the artist to be persecuted by the Argentine military dictatorship. Seeking exile in Brazil in the 1970s, he established intense and prolific relationships with Brazilian artists and intellectuals.
Ferrari referred to his wire sculptures of the 1960s as “cages for capturing generals”. These intricate structures laid the foundation for his calligraphic works, in which he took written texts to a radical graphic illegibility. In 1965 he produced one of his most notorious pieces, La Civilización Occidental y Cristiana, nailing Christ to a U.S. Air Force fighter jet. During his years in São Paulo (1976-1984) he experimented with print-based works, labyrinthine urban grids and swarms of anonymous figures, a phase he later called “architecture of madness”. In the 1980s, he intervened in classical Renaissance paintings with pigeon droppings and composed collages juxtaposing sacred images to photographs of military equipment and war-time destruction. Based on the heretical appropriation of religious imagery, Ferrari continued to produce assemblages, incorporating materials such as polyurethane bones, making collages and sculptures throughout his later years.
La Aimable Cruauté, a wide-ranging retrospective exhibition dedicated to the work of León Ferrari, was presented at Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2022), Reina Sofia (Madrid, 2021) and the Van AbbeMuseum (Eindhoven, 2022). In Brazil, Museu de Arte de São Paulo hosted León Ferrari: Entre Duas Ditaduras in 2016. In 2009, the NY MoMA dedicated an exhibition to the works of Ferrari and Mira Schendel later shown at Reina Sofia (Madrid, 2013) and Fundação Iberê Camargo (Porto Alegre, 2010). Between 2004 and 2005, Centro Cultural Recoleta exhibited Retrospectiva León Ferrari in Buenos Aires, also shown at Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo in 2009. The artist was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2007 edition of the Venice Biennale.
Special thanks to the Ferrari family and Fundación Augusto y León Ferrari Arte y Acervo
