Memento Habilis

Henrique Oliveira opens his new show Memento Habilis at Millan, his first at the gallery since 2016.

Although not defined as such, three-dimensional works in organic forms suggest vegetables and animals. Among them is a striking large-scale installation that gives its name to the exhibition. Displayed on the gallery's ground floor, the work consists of overlapping elements that become almost indistinguishable due to their wooden appearance, forming a huge organism reminiscent of a tree trunk.

Created from a series of processes that include gluing and joining together salvaged pieces of wood, the works in Memento Habilis share sources of inspiration in prehistoric painting and animals such as mammoths and other species of megafauna, the gigantic beasts that coexisted with our human ancestors.

When viewed in detail, twisted forms appear, berries and seeds, primitive tools, the legs of animals and insects, lending the exhibition an air of the fantastical. The recurring sense of fascination provoked by the works of Henrique Oliveira creates conflict between natural and architectural space, parallel lives often seem to be breaking in through the walls.

Regardless of the material used, the physical nature of Oliveira’s production elicits a sensorial and corporeal experience in those who see it — aspects explored by the artist in projects carried out at the 29th Bienal de São Paulo (2010) and at MAC-USP (2014).

Consisting of works developed in isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, this new solo exhibition from Henrique Oliveira at Millan, the gallery which represents him in Brazil, reveals works of a more experimental nature which, at the same time, were able to mature over a longer period.