Nara Roesler New York is proud to announce On the shoulders of giants, a group exhibition curated by Raphael Fonseca, one of Brazil’s most acclaimed emerging contemporary art curators, opening on June 24 2021.

On the shoulders of giants will showcase Brazilian artists from different generations, whose practices investigate the relations and tensions between ideas of time and memory. The plurality of the works presented will offer the opportunity to delve into an ample array of propositions on these themes, presenting different aesthetic and conceptual interpretations. The exhibition foregrounds contemporary engagements with popular and ancestral narratives, exploring how they coexist and intertwine with modern day contexts, in order to develop collective memory.

The exhibition brings together a varied group of artists, most of them from outside the mainstream Brazilian artistic scene, and neither represented by Nara Roesler gallery. The selection of works embraces artistic practices that address overlooked narratives by tackling subject-matters such as indigeneity, race, and inequality. Nara Roesler Gallery is proud to promote the visibility of multiple voices, bringing to the fore significant stories, traditionally absent in the Brazilian contemporary debate.

The title of the exhibition rests on the latin maxim ‘nanos gigantum humeris insidentes’. According to Fonseca, the premise ‘points to the fact that in order to learn in the present, we need to position ourselves in dialogue with the past and with its ‘giants’ that surround us.’, who offer an enormous inventory of memories and traditions. By placing ourselves on their shoulders, we are therefore able to achieve a more ample understanding of what has been, and strive to mold an informed and sensitive existence within what is yet to come.

Artists presented include works by artists such as Alan Adi, Gabi Bresola, Gustavo Caboco, Leila Danziger, Victor Galvão, André Griffo, Andrea Hygino, Randolpho Lamonier, Adriano Machado, No Martins, Virginia de Medeiros, Marta Neves, and Amador and Jr. Segurança Patrimonial, who together invite the audience to reflect upon what kind of collective and individual memory we might achieve. In knowing that the malleability of heritage is the basis of identity construction, we can actively seek it out, seeking to comprehend where we come from and what we intend to be. By recuperating and valuing traditional practices we are able to strengthen them across generations, while also foregrounding anonymous, peripheral and marginalized heritage. On the shoulders of giants, calls for the creation and elaboration of new perspectives, visions and intentions for tomorrow, coming from a careful discernment of the past.

On the shoulders of giants is part of the Roesler Curatorial Project, directed by Luis Pérez-Oramas, which asserts the gallery’s commitment to supporting innovative and experimental projects, stimulating the dialogue between different agents of the artistic circuit.

Press release courtesy Galeria Nara Roesler.