Luiz Zerbini : Fire

13 Apr-15 May 2021

Overview

Brazilian artist Luiz Zerbini presents his second exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery, following his acclaimed solo show at South London Gallery in 2018. Juxtaposing organic and geometric forms, Zerbini’s paintings explore the relationship between colour, light and movement. Inspired by the Amazon and Mata Atlântica rainforests, the exhibition reflects the artist’s ongoing interest in the relationship between nature and humanity in and around Rio de Janeiro. Across his career, which spans over three decades, Zerbini has developed a complex visual vocabulary at the intersection of figuration and abstraction. He first emerged within the generational (and global) ‘return to painting’ of the 1980s, centred in Rio de Janeiro around the Parque Lage School of Visual Arts and subsequently defined by the landmark exhibition ‘Como vai você Geração 80?’ (How Are You Doing, 80s Generation?, 1984). The exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery follows Zerbini's major presentation in the group show 'Trees' at Fondation Cartier pour l'artcontemporain, Paris, in 2019. There the artist transformed the main gallery into an urban jungle, combining a large-scale herbarium — complete with a living fig tree — with hyperreal paintings of the rainforest and symbols of Brazilian modernity.