Luisa Brandelli – Auroras

auroras is pleased to present a new exhibition by Luisa Brandelli. Occupying two spaces, the artist shows a set of works from her series of beads, photographs and a brass piece, as well as a new body of pictorial/sculptural works on cardboard.

There are aspects that refer to a teenage aesthetic in these works. Be it the strong colors – almost fluorescent in some of her beadworks – or the two self-portraits that show the discomfort of the artist’s self-sexualization in the transition to her adult life; but also for the materials that the artist collects and uses in her “untitled” work that refer to this universe. There are trinkets, bibelots, an iPod (which in itself marks a time frame, who knows what songs are in there) and all sorts of things that could be found on the desk in a teenager’s room from the early 2000s. The works operate within logics of superficiality, that is, things happen on the surface: in the reflection of the glass of very dark photographs; otherwise, in the direct and flat manner of “exotic juxtaposition of rich and poor”; or even in the slow and constant filling, full of errors and improvisation that constitutes the beadworks.

There is also a pseudo-contradiction between a minimalist tradition that the artist adopts and a profusion of details – which indicate an extended temporality – details that point, once again, to an intimate and personal dimension (even if often produced through mass commodities). Finally, it can be argued that there are elements that point, if not to a class dimension, necessarily, to a question of value and artistic gesture. This gesture, in Brandelli’s works, is contaminated by small marks and dirt from the minimal and imprecise work of the hand. The artist does not consider that there is a hierarchy between materials, nor between procedures. In the end, what does it mean to elevate cardboard (perhaps the most mundane of materials) to a work of art with such a simple gesture? The artist’s touch, literally the “little pixie dust” that accumulates in the folds of the cardboard, is all that is needed for the condition of this material to completely transform. It feels a bit like carnival. Momentarily the lowest of the low fantasizes – both in the sense of his clothing and in the imaginative connotation, of projection – as the most exuberant member of royalty. Maybe this is what the teenager projects in her room while listening to Destiny’s Child and organizing her jewelry box and other trinkets.

Luisa Brandelli (1990, Porto Alegre, lives and works in São Paulo) developed her first works in 2015. In 2016 she participated in her first exhibition when she was selected for “Abre Alas” at the gallery A Gentil Carioca. She participated in exhibitions in galleries such as Bolsa de Arte, Fortes D’ Aloia e Gabriel, A Gentil Carioca, among others; and institutions including Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana, Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul and Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica, where she held the solo exhibition “Algum lugar muito, muito selvagem” in 2022. That same year she won the residency award at the Inclusartiz Institute for participating in the “Hora Grande” exhibition, at SP-Arte. In 2021 she gained prominence at the Revista Zum photobook festival with the publication “Revista Urgência”.

Jailton Moreira writes about the artist’s work: “There is a genealogy in minimalism and conceptual art, but the artist distorts these references and their ambitions for purity and precision. The elements she uses are contextual triggers that recruit places, voices and clichés. Luisa has a taste for cheap decoration, for easy and ambitious shine that seeks an upgrade through the simple game of appearances. In the superficial game of appearances, conceptual density is achieved as we are coerced into positioning ourselves.”