Lidia Lisbôa (1970, Terra Roxa, Brazil) presents "O Teatro" ["The Theater"], her second solo exhibition at Millan, opening on September 14. Curated by Cristiano Raimondi, the exhibition features a wide range of materials and mediums — textiles, ceramics, bronze, drawings — presented in an immersive installation. Throughout the exhibition, the space will host performances and activations, functioning as a stage where the artist's stories and gestures can take shape.
Lidia Lisbôa's work is the result of a practice that constantly intertwines art and life, body and memory. The new exhibition allows viewers to enter her poetic universe through an installation where the floor and part of the walls are covered with a red carpet. The color symbolizes a visceral force, as defined by the curator, pointing to both the internal and external dimensions of the artist's work. "Theater as metaphor and simulacrum, theater as an ideal space to talk about life, theater as a place of sacredness and concentration," says Cristiano Raimondi. This theatrical aspect also harks back to the beginning of Lidia's career when she was involved with theater groups, sewing workshops, and costume design.
The exhibition brings together some of the artist’s renowned series, such as the Cupinzeiros, sculptures created in ceramics or bronze; Cordões umbilicais, in which she draws fluid lines in space using wire, buttons, and porcelain; Tetas que deram de mamar ao mundo, textile sculptures created with crochet; and Casulos, also crochet, which are wearable objects used in performances. In all these works, craftsmanship is a defining characteristic, serving as an exercise in subjective construction.
"O Teatro" also includes works on paper, including the series Frutas (2009), Mulher (1995) — both exhibited for the first time — and the recent drawings from the Memórias de renda series. Created with ink or watercolor, these pieces reveal a more intimate scale of Lidia's poetics and attest to an incessant practice that has remained vigorous over the years. "The same energy I put into a ball of clay, I also put into a drawing in the corner of the paper or into a huge crochet sculpture," says the artist. "We are always reinventing ourselves."
Lidia Lisbôa is currently exhibiting two more solo shows: Têta at MAR – Museu de Arte do Rio, on view until November 3; and Mulher Esqueleto at Sesc Araraquara, on view until January 19. Her recent group exhibitions include Threads to the South at ISLAA (New York, 2024); The Ocean is the Axis at Mariane Ibrahim Gallery (Mexico City, 2024); Vai, vai, Saudade at Museo Madre (Naples, 2024); the 37th Panorama de Arte Brasileira at MAM (São Paulo, 2022); and the 13th Mercosul Biennial (Porto Alegre, 2022). Her works are part of significant institutional collections such as ISLAA (New York), Museo del Barrio (New York), MARGS (Porto Alegre), and Pinacoteca de São Paulo.
