In Da Cunha's practice, seduction is articulated as a promise to make the unknown known and the known unknown. His work develops out of a dialogue with neo-formalist art, echoing the human body and its parts in a Duchampian way. The Objet Trouvé is central to his strategy of altering found objects like cans, bottles, brushes and pipes and animated with a sexual energy, staging them as pleasant deviators. Da Cunha's works have been described as Tropical Ready-Mades, overflowing with desire trapped in exotic, aesthetic form, often mimicking modernist sculptures. Finding in common objects both an abstract purity of form and an endless potential for transfiguration and reconfiguration is the essence of the artist's working process.
Read MoreAlexandre da Cunha (Brazil, 1969) lives and works between London and Sao Paulo. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Pivô, Sao Paulo; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago; Camden Arts Centre, London; Thomas Dane Gallery, London; Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo; CRG Gallery, New York. His work has appeared in group exhibitions at ICA Boston, Boston; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Musee d'Art Modern de la Ville, Paris; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Witte De With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam and the 30th Sao Paulo Biennial.
His work is included in the collections of Tate Modern, London; Inhotim, Brumadinho; Rennie Collection, Vancouver and Pinacoteca do Estado de Sao Paulo.
Text courtesy Office Baroque.
