Gabriela Rangel

The first substantial monograph on Elsa Gramcko, an artist who redefined abstraction and assemblage Postwar artist Elsa Gramcko (1925-94) never identified her practice with a formal artistic movement but freely explored geometric abstraction, Surrealism and Informalism through painting, assemblage, and sculpture. She is often associated with prominent Venezuelan women artists such as Gego (Gertrude Goldschmidt), Tecla Tofano and Mercedes Pardo, who also began to expand the limits of art in the 1960s. The publication frames Gramcko's contribution to global modernism outside the doctrinal limitations of the avant-garde, offering a comprehensive survey of her artistic practice from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s--from her paintings of graphic, biomorphic shapes to her groundbreaking assemblages made of conglomerate techniques that morphed the use of found wooden boards and planks. It includes essays by Gabriela Rangel and art historian and writer Aruna D'Souza, which examine Gramcko's critical approach to petro-modernity, along with with unpublished letters the artist wrote to Alejandro Otero in the early 1960s that defined her relationship to objecthood.

Elsa Gramcko: The Invisible Plot of Things

Dias & Riedweg

--and it Becomes Something Else

Karen Marta

José Leonilson (1957-1993) came of age as an artist during the 80s generation in Brazil. What he shared with this diverse artistic milieu was the so-called 'joy of painting,' rediscovered in the years following the end of Brazil's dictatorship.What separated him from his contemporaries was his personal way of working and his distinct aesthetic centred on raw emotional feelings, introspective musings, and private affairs.Focusing on Leonilson's production as a mature artist, the catalogue will feature approximately fifty paintings, drawings, and intimate embroideries made between the mid -1980s until 1993, when the artist died of AIDS.This short yet prolific period showcases the artist's fully developed language, connecting his oeuvre with contemporary art practices, Brazilian vernacular traditions, and global issues prompted by the AIDS crisis.Published on the occasion of the exhibition, José Leonilson: Empty Man at the Americas Society, New York (27 September 2017 - 3 February 2018).

Empty Man

José Leonilson

Doris Sommer

Paulo Herkenhoff

Paula Trope

Acting as mediator and collaborator, Paula Trope recruited a number of children living in the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro to make photographs using pinhole cameras she had constructed for them. Emancipatory Actionpresents the multi-panel photographs and videos that resulted. An extended interview with various participants debates the many issues attending this experiment.

Gabriela Rangel

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