JOSÉ PATRÍCIO

Since the end of the 1990s, Patrício has continuously and methodically explored ordinary materials such as plastic figurines, buttons, dice and dominoes. These objects’ apparent banality conveys a certain playfulness, while the artist’s systematic compositions strips them from their function, redefines their purpose and transforms them into unusual images.

Apart from the act of re-appropriation of objects, shifting from the everyday to the universe of visual arts, the questions of seriality and reproduction are also key aspects of Patrício’s practice. Indeed, the artist assembles, within a single composition, huge quantities of the same object—as such, the item becomes both, identifiable in its singularity, and de-characterised by the abundance in numbers and the artist’s imposed compositional function.

On the occasion of his sixth exhibition at Galeria Nara Roesler, José Patrício has chosen to further his investigation into the search for and understanding of the potential beauty of everyday objects, creating configurations that seek to amplify the items’ formal possibilities by unveiling, often inherent, rhythms and colours.

Specifically, his most recent series consists of a body of works composed of small plastic cubes, whose colours vary from white to black, going through all the greys in between, totalling in twenty-two different tonalities. By focusing specifically on grayscales, and excluding other colours, the structure of the work becomes even more pronounced, with a sense of movement, dynamism and rhythm transpiring ever so strongly.

Patrício’s new works are titled so as to further emphasize the series’ focus on motion and cadence, with names such as circuito tonal [tonal circuit], trajetória sobre preto [black trajectory], trajetória sobre branco [white trajectory]. Ultimately, movement is incorporated into the artist’s practice, not only as a path for his artistic research, but also as a source of endless possibilities and combinations. Though the series uses very few elements, employing variations of the same object, each work presents a different sequence alluding to the idea that compositional options are infinite.

According to the curator Paula Braga, the fact that the eccentric and concentric compositions capture the public’s eye more effectively than the artist’s creative process, reveals that time becomes visible when showing the impossibility of exhausting compositional possibilities.