Nara Roesler is pleased to announce the opening of Seasons of the Soul, a solo exhibition by Karin Lambrecht. The presentation will showcase a selection of over twenty works–both paintings and works on paper - by the artist, created in 2021 and will be accompanied by an essay written by curator David Anfam. The exhibition will mark the beginning of the gallery's exhibition program for the year of 2022, in Sao Paulo, opening to the public on February 17 and remaining on view until March 26.
Karin Lambrecht's recent production reveals significant changes in her practice following her move from Porto Alegre, Brazil, to Broadstairs, on the island of Thanet, in the United Kingdom. Her current work is characterised by ample areas of colours covering the canvas, which evoke the particular sensations prompted by the local landscape and natural light cycles. Indeed, Lambrecht has turned to new forms of chromatic and formal compositions, leaving behind her characteristic use of earthy and dense blue hues, and turning to rather variegated and airy surfaces. The artist also noted that her use of red tones is now less related to the idea of the earth, as had been the case previously, and more related to the sky in Broadstairs, which she says takes on red qualities at the end of the day.
In addition to colour, the use of language is also an important aspect of the artist's work, with words written on the canvas, either in Portuguese, English, or German, which often determine the title of the piece as well. Her choice of words tend to evoke landscapes, such as Lua Nova [New Moon], Cliff, Cloud and Céu [Sky], or metaphysical ideas, such as Ether, Cosmos and Pleasure [Prazer]. Thus, the title of the exhibition, Seasons of the Soul, references the ways in which the subjective and the natural world intertwine and collide in Lambrecht's practice.
The exhibition will also present a series of works on paper, whereby the artist draws upon silk-like paper using thread, sewing shapes and words, which she complements with watercolour brushstrokes. According to the artist, her works on paper call for a more meditative process, offering a counterpoint to her paintings, which require a more expansive gestuality and a faster stroke.
Seasons of the Soul offers an opportunity to delve into the work of Karin Lambrecht, as she continues to demonstrate how her practice proposes a singular and poetic language, subliminally capturing how the spiritual and natural fields intertwine. In addition, author and curator David Anfam, who specialises in abstraction, and more specifically in North American Abstract Expressionism, proposes a text that amplifies the possibilities for critical understandings of the artist's work.
Working within the expanded field of painting and sculpture, Karin Lambrecht’s work embodies the gestural abstraction of her 1980s generation while referencing Arte Povera and Joseph Beuys. Using vibrant pigments, produced by the artist herself, she applies broad, gestural brushstrokes to hand-stitched frameless, torn, and burned canvases, sometimes incorporating organic materials such as animal blood, charcoal, rainwater, and earth. Her recurring motifs include crosses, the human body, and handwritten or stamped enigmatic words that emerge from layers of paint evoking illness, death, and cure.
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.
