Alvaro Seixas
Alvaro Seixas, (b.1982) Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas second solo show ‘The Importance of the Devil’ at Galeria Cavalo.
“The Rio de Janeiro based artist known for his critical posture and comical posts that pin curators, gallerists, collectors and art collectives presents new works in the space in Botafogo neighborhood. The title, named after a 1932 essay by the Spanish writer José Bergamin, defends the relevance of the provocative and defiant agent role in the art circuit.
In ‘The Importance of the Devil’ Alvaro presents a repertoire of paintings produced in 2019, with motives ranging from expressionist abstractions to reinterpreted mythological scenes, to cartoon characters and sentences about the art universe. To this end, Seixas evokes from the demons of English romantic poets John Milton and William Blake to the exoticism imagery of Jean-Baptiste Debret, a painter who portrayed the daily life of colonial Brazil.
Seixas continues his research on installation painting, choosing unusual layouts of works in space. This time the artist uses new features in his production, such as graphic prints on paper, fabrics, and photographic backgrounds, expanding and contradicting his title as a painter. The dynamics of digital images of smartphones are, alongside the tradition of painting, their source of inspiration.
In his homonymous text, the poet José Bergamin praises the ambiguity. This is also a central theme of Alvaro’s new production, exercising its irony by satirizing the art system and from it reflecting on figures of power, morality, and the dimension of the figures of martyr and traitor. “How to be popular and pop being unpopular, that is, betraying the medium?” The artist wonders. ‘How to oppose the art system within that system itself? How to criticize and flirt with the system being one of its agents?
In a time of global political instability, Seixas slogans, tragic, romantic, angry and nihilistic texts attempt to bring down deified works of Brazilian and world art.” - Galeria Cavalo
His solo shows include: The Importance of the Devil, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2019; Muito Romântico Tour, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; O coxo, o sádico e o poeta, Roberto Alban Galeria, Salvador, Brasil, 2017; Alvaro Seixas: O Artista que queria ser Rei. DotART Galeria de Arte, Belo Horizonte, Brasil, 2016; Paintbrush, Galeria Mercedes Viegas Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Alvaro Seixas no/at projeto/project Technô, Oi Futuro Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2015; Keep Dripping, Galeria Mercedes Viegas Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2012; Alvaro Seixas, Galeria Amarelonegro Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2011; Alvaro Seixas, Galeria Amarelonegro Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2008; Alvaro Seixas, Galeria de arte do SESC, Niterói, Brasil, 2005
Some of his group shows include: Pés no chão, cabeça nas nuvens, DotART Galeria de Arte, Belo Horizonte, Brasil. PINTURA [Diálogo de artistas], Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. A Luz que vela a corpo é a mesma que revela a tela,curadoria Bruno Miguel. Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Mundos Reinventados (Let us just call it abstract), curadoria Bob N., C Galeria, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2017; The Unique Institutional Critique Pop-Up Boutique, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Um desassossego, Galeria Estação, São Paulo, Brasil; Pequenas Pinturas, Curadoria Ricardo Kugelmas e Bruno Dunley. Auroras, São Paulo, Brasil; Alvaro Seixas, Jhafis Quintero e Roberto Freitas. Curadoria Wilson Lázaro. Casa DotART, Belo Horizonte, Brasil. Exposição Inaugural, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2016; 10ª Bienal do Mercosul “Mensagens de Uma Nova América”, Porto Alegre, Brasil V Edição do Prêmio Marcantonio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas, MAC-USP, São Paulo, SP, Brasil, 2015; Ornamentos, Curadoria / curated by Felipe Scovino. Galeria A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2013
Collections: The Alex Katz Foundation, EUA; MAR – Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Coleção Diógenes Paixão, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
