Gallery Press Release:

Luiz Zerbini creates textured immerse worlds; large-scale, colorful landscapes strewn with lush, exotic vegetation, stormy pixellated seascapes; buildings partially hidden by trees and overhanging branches, domestic interiors, and extensive silvery surfaces dotted with tiny geometric blocks of colour. The shallow interiors of his paintings often seep into the gallery space, connecting to real plants and flowers, and to sculptures resembling human bones or fragments of mosaic paving.

Glass vase-sculptures contain succulent green leaves or long bones constructing strange watery layers of changing perception. More compact white, green and orange collages utilise old slide mounts alluding to art history, and the process of making and archiving art.

Much of Brazilian artist Zerbini’s work originates from and is inspired by his personal archive of small objects, photos, texts and souvenirs that evolve into dense, almost experiential environments. From an early interest in photography, figurative painting and theater set design, his work has – over thirty years – evolved to combine painting with sculpture, and the real with the made.

Although the medium of painting in itself is of little individual formal concern to Zerbini, he is constantly questioning the role of the medium, exploring its involving, absorbing qualities. His works are continuously foregrounding, juxtaposing styles and techniques; placing grid-like structures over naturalistic scenes; using organic and geometric patterning, figuration and abstraction, dark and shade.

Luiz Zerbini in his Rio atelier – Picture via Mr Porter – The Real Rio

More Information at Max Wigram Gallery

TAGS: art basel, Luiz Zerbini, Slide Frame Collages, slides