The Last Day of the Century

Painter Maya Weishof (1993, Curitiba, Brazil) will inaugurate The Last Day of the Century, a solo exhibition following her shows in Paris, London, and South Korea. The exhibition, featuring a critical text by curator Renato Menezes, will open at Millan on November 11, Saturday, marking the conclusion of the gallery’s 2023 program.

Featuring entirely new works, this exhibition showcases the latest developments in Weishof’s artistic exploration, delving deep into the craft of painting. These works blend different techniques and finishes to create scenes that oscillate between night and day, body and landscape, dream and vigilance, pleasure and terror, simultaneously apocalyptic and cathartic. More than just exploring the contrasts between these elements, Weishof investigates how they mutually constitute each other and inhabit the human psyche.

In this context, the exhibition’s title, The Last Day of the Century, referencing a quote from Jean Delumeau’s book La Peur en Occident [The Fear in the West] speaks to the frightening and seductive effects of the unknown.

In the critical essay accompanying the exhibition, Renato Menezes states that “the origin of Maya Weishof’s painting lies in color and the color that she chooses. She has no figures that are not made of color, just as there is no empty space not filled with multicolored waves. It is through color that the spiral of her gaze is unleashed: there are no limits, purity does not exist, and straight lines are rigorously profaned, with the confidence of someone who trusts in the energy of their paintbrushes”.

This exhibition at Millan also marks an unprecedented foray for the artist into the creation of stained glass, adorning the gallery’s windows. She has painted on the glass the same creatures and forms that inhabit her paintings. This unconventional support in contemporary art is related to the Baroque and Renaissance churches that serve as inspiration for Maya and have also been the canvas for creations by artists like Marc Chagall, who also inspire her.