The exhibition Pocket Painting displays a series of 90 canvases in 4 x 6 inches format created by Paulo Pasta in the last two years. The opening also marks the inauguration of Millan's third exhibition space in São Paulo.
Unprecedented in his production, the diminutive format led the artist to revisit issues dear to his production over the last four decades and, from this process of synthesis and research, to open new possibilities for experimentation. As the writer and literary critic Davi Arrigucci Jr. says in a text — also concise and precise — published in the book that accompanies the exhibition, the search of every artist is that "the unlimited fits in the minimum". The little paintings that Pasta has been producing have exactly this capacity of condensation between excess and concision.
The Pocket Painting installation highlights the individual strength of these works by showing them alone or in small groupings, like blobs of color distributed in the gallery environment, evoking conversations or musical notations. "You never make two identical paintings," says the painter paraphrasing Heraclitus, and underlining that there is always a minimal difference that appears in the seemingly equal, thus testifying to the value of time.
The exhibition also brings a pocket-sized publication with reproductions of all the works that make up the show, as well as a text signed by Davi Arrigucci Jr.
PhD in Fine Arts from the University of São Paulo, SP (2011) and one of the main painters of his generation, Paulo Pasta (1959, Ariranha, SP) builds exuberant chromatic fields that invite the viewer to attentive observation.
Pasta held solo exhibitions in institutions such as David Nolan Gallery, USA (2022); Cecilia Brunson Projects, UK (2022); Millan, SP (2021); Museu de Arte Sacra, SP (2021); Instituto Tomie Ohtake and Millan (2018). Among his participations in group shows are: Vício impune: o artista colecionador, Millan and Galeria Raquel Arnaud, SP (2021); 1981/2021: Arte Contemporânea Brasileira na Coleção Andrea e José Olympio Pereira, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, RJ (2021); and Pinacoteca: acervo, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, SP (2020). His works are featured in the collections of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, SP; MAM, SP; MAM, RJ; MAC-USP, SP; Museu de Belas-Artes do Rio de Janeiro, RJ; Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, SP; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Kunsthalle Berlin, Germany; Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg, Hall Art Foundation, Holle, Germany.
