Composition is a subject dear to the artist Nelson Felix, one of the most relevant names on the contemporary art scene. The theme emerged in his reflections in the mid-1980s, when critical, uncomfortable eyes hovered over the issue of composition in art. The thought expanded beyond the material composition, going through time and space, and began to take shape with the work Grafite (1985-1988), a sculpture that, according to the artist, “enabled the construction of works with diverse spaces”. Love Letter, his new solo show at Galeria Millan, mirrors part of this and adds to Felix’s research about cosmographies.
“Carta de Amor is a work that mirrors Grafite (1985 - 1988). Clusters of locations, as well as the arias, musical blocks that add up in the operas,” says Nelson Felix. “In Grafite, two rods are positioned with different procedures: one aligned to the axis of the sun at the moment the work is installed. This position alludes to a ‘perfect’ placement, as it is the reference in the solar system and around which everything revolves and gravitates - so precise that everything else can be considered crooked. Since the arrangement of the piece is defined a priori, even prior to the choice of the exhibition space, it ignores the possibility of composition with it. The other piece, on purpose, has its position chosen by me”, he complements.
The exhibition is divided in two segments. In Millan’s three rooms - hall, main room, and second floor room - a single work is interconnected, physically or formally. In a sequential time structure similar to that of cinematographic shots - sometimes complementing, sometimes contradicting.
In the main room, Felix presents an installation with the show’s homonymous title that consists of Carrara marble pieces, steel cables and a plant element (rose). “A marble rod is placed vertically in the architecture, therefore ‘perfect’ with it. And now one searches, no longer in space, but in time, for the moment when this rod will form a cross with the axis of the sun. What, before, in Grafite, was aligned, in Carta de Amor, is transversal. Despite the evident verticality (even pendular) of the sculpture, it is in fact horizontal in our solar system,” explains the artist.
In the second segment, Nelson Felix forms a collection with two new sculptures - one of them large-scale - and two drawings. These works are joined by a selection of works by four other artists from the body represented by Millan, selected by Felix to compose the exhibition: Mira Schendel, Artur Barrio, Paulo Pasta and David Almeida. “It was a natural choice, they are artists for whom I have great admiration and I feel mirrored in them,” says Nelson.