Founded in São Paulo in 1989, Galeria Nara Roesler is a leading Brazilian gallery dedicated to showing the work of contemporary Brazilian and international artists. The gallery established another branch in Rio de Janeiro in 2014, followed by its first international outpost in New York City in 2015.
Read MoreThe roster of Brazilian artists at Galeria Nara Roesler sketches a history of modern and contemporary Brazilian art, including those who rose to prominence in the 1950s. One such artist is the Japanese-Brazilian Tomie Ohtake, whose explorations of abstraction in painting, printmaking, and sculpture have furthered, and continue to further, abstract art in Brazil. Also on the gallery roster are Antonio Dias and Sérgio Sister, whose early works are exemplary of Brazilian Pop art. While also influenced by their American counterparts, these Brazilian artists differed significantly in adopting graphic imagery and deploying the Pop aesthetic to protest the Brazilian military regime in the 1960s. In the following decades, Dias has moved on to engage with figuration and abstraction, constructing sculptural compositions out of canvases and miscellaneous objects. Sister, on the other hand, has garnered international acclaim for his ‘Caixas’ (Crate) and ‘Ripas’ (Strips) works (both 2009–ongoing), which investigate surface and materiality by painting on and rearranging the slats of fruit boxes into abstract configurations.
Younger generations of contemporary Brazilian artists who work with Galeria Nara Roesler include José Patrício, who uses darts, dice, buttons, tacks, and nails to create gridded compositions that often feature receding squares; Vik Muniz, known for his socially aware and surprising photographs of Old Master paintings and celebrity portraits that he has rendered in unusual substances like chocolate; and Lucia Koch, whose architectural interventions involve large arabesque apertures that generate dramatic interplays between light and space.
International artists at the gallery range from Dan Graham and Daniel Buren—pioneers of Conceptual art in the 1960s—to Isaac Julien, a British filmmaker and installation artist whose works examine the themes of identity, migration, and institutional racism; and Alexandre Arrechea, a Cuban artist working across sculpture, painting, video, and installation to interrogate topical concerns such as social control and surveillance.
Galeria Nara Roesler offers exhibitions all year, with notable group shows such as Chromophilia vs Chromophobia: An Exploration of Color (2016), a two-part presentation that revolved around colour; and Arquiteturas do Imaginário (Architectures of the Imaginary) (2019), which examined perceptions of space. The gallery is an active participant in contemporary art fairs in both Brazil and elsewhere, including ArtRio, Rio de Janeiro; SP-Arte, São Paulo; Art Basel in Hong Kong; EXPO CHICAGO; Frieze New York; and West Bund Art & Design, Shanghai.
Ocula Photolog The Armory Show 2020 The Armory Show (5–8 March) features presentations by leading international galleries, innovative artist commissions, and dynamic public programs. The 2020 edition of The Armory Show, welcomes 183 exhibitors from 32 countries, convening Midtown Manhattan at Piers 90 and 94.
Ocula Photolog FIAC, Paris 2019 'FIAC brings together 197 galleries from 29 countries. Coming together from all over the world, the diversity of FIAC's exhibitors and their loyalty year after year reflects the magnetic attraction of Paris in theinternational creative community.' – FIAC Paris, Press Release.
Ocula Photolog Frieze London 2019 'Frieze London brings together more than 160 galleries from 36 countries, representing the fair's most international edition since its launch. Introducing new curators and sections showcasing performance, emerging artists and the contemporary significance of complex art genealogies and colonial legacies, Frieze London creates an exceptional moment...
Ocula Insight Sérgio Sister: Images of a Pop Youth By Sherry Paik Sherry Paik introduces Images of a Pop Youth — Political Paintings and Prison Drawings, Sérgio Sister's solo exhibition at Galeria Nara Roesler in São Paulo (10 August–5 September 2019), which centres on his early years as an artist.
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Related Press Lucia Koch by Mário Ramiro 21 January 2019, BOMB There was a point where Lucia Koch was disturbed by the fact that most approaches to her works took them only as expressions of atmospheric changes on spaces and the alterations that light, modulated by filters, produced on human perception.
Related Video & Audio vik muniz | superfícies 23 October 2019, Galeria Nara Roesler A Galeria Nara Roesler | São Paulo apresenta Superfícies, mostra individual de Vik Muniz na qual o artista amplia a sua investigação sobre a imagem em uma série inédita de trabalhos, todos únicos e produzidos neste ano. A série tem como ponto de partida um conjunto amplo e variado de pinturas abstratas, de diferentes autores e procedências...
Related Video & Audio raul mourão | frieze london 2019 | teaser 23 September 2019, Galeria Nara Roesler As a result of almost a decade’s worth of research on Rio de Janeiro’s buildings’ security fences, which physically separate Brazil’s people, supposedly protecting some from others–shielding but also jailing, preserving but also fragmenting communities–Raul Mourão developed an investigation into the idea of opposition. In the artist’s words, ‘We...
Related Video & Audio sérgio sister | Imagens de uma juventude pop – pinturas políticas e desenhos da prisão 12 August 2019, Galeria Nara Roesler A Galeria Nara Roesler | São Paulo apresenta Imagens de uma juventude pop–pinturas políticas e desenhos da cadeia, quarta individual de Sérgio Sister na sede paulista da galeria. Acompanhada de texto de Camila Bechelany, a mostra reúne pela primeira vez um número significativo de obras pouco conhecidas pelo público – produzidas entre 1966 e 1971...
Related Video & Audio in the studio | carlito carvalhosa 24 July 2019, Galeria Nara Roesler Em meio aos preparativos para I Want To Be Like You, exposição individual que inaugura em setembro, na Galeria Nara Roesler | New York, Carlito Carvalhosa abre as portas de seu ateliê no Rio de Janeiro e fala sobre seus trabalhos recentes, em sua maioria realizados em tinta óleo sobre cera e peças de alumínio. Ao falar sobre sua trajetória...
