The exhibition Felipe Cohen: Pálpebra, the fourth solo exhibition by the artist who was born in São Paulo in 1976, brings together 10 works – 8 paintings and 2 objects – and stems from the idea of dematerializing the horizon through reflection, a phenomenon that has been the artist’s object of study over the last decade.
From this research, Cohen has been conceiving works that highlight the depth and the phenomenon of light and its effect on the amplification of spatial sensations as well as its affections on the temporal experience of an image. In the exhibition at Galeria Millan, reflection is articulated from the perspective of the landscape, covering aspects of the geometric and symbolic fields.
In his series of paintings, the title of which is lent to the exhibition, Cohen juxtaposes circular shapes of the same size with horizontal lines, seeking an interlacing and overlap where the modular unit is completely reduced through the selection of areas that would be painted. “Similar to the display cases, in which they were inspired (a series of objects that I have been making since 2013), there is a clear allusion to landscapes of sunsets in liquid horizons, thus creating instances of reflection and mirroring,” explains the artist.
“Producing landscapes, whether in display cases or paintings, has always been a pretext for me to talk about possible articulations between light, time and space. What seemed interesting to me from the beginning of the act of articulating these shapes was the way in which, with the same circular form – a symbol for cyclic movement – it was possible to create countless topographical situations and suggestions of depth,” he says. “The shapes in these paintings also reminded me of two eyes – mostly with an eyelid open and the other closed – gazing from the landscape to the viewer. I found this second instance of mirroring quite interesting, a landscape that stares back at the viewer.”
The exhibition also features two objects made with glass cups and basalt that occupy the gallery display case. The stones were sculpted in the shapes of the glasses, creating a strange relationship between the solid, opaque and black material and the transparency of the cups. In one of the objects, the heavy matter seems to levitate inside the content between the glasses. In the second object there is a symmetrical expansion of the matter towards the edge of the glasses, creating two conical shapes mirrored by the overlapping of the glasses.
Important announcement: due to the restrictions of the Purple Phase, from March 15 to April 10, 2021, the exhibition will be open to visitors through new guidelines of the Government of the State of São Paulo.