We are pleased to present the new solo show by Rio de Janeiro artist Ernesto Neto. The show entitled Não Tenha Medo do Seu Corpo [Don’t Be Afraid of Your Body] will take place simultaneously at Galeria Fortes Vilaça and the gallery’s Galpão [warehouse] with new works made with crochet. The exhibition will have an innovative format with a traveling profile: an unusual inauguration for invited guests only, will be held at the artist’s studio, in Rio de Janeiro, where the works can be appreciated in the setting where they were originally created, moving to São Paulo right after. In August, there will be another event: a conversation, open to the public, between the artist and curator Adriano Pedrosa.

Neto presents a series of sculptures/installations in crochet made through the combination of polypropylene and polyester threads and plastic balls. A large artwork like a carpet with interwoven colored circles and three sculptures in the form of swings will occupy the gallery. A monumental installation, Totem/Capela [Totem/Chapel], will be presented exclusively in the Galpão, the space for which it was designed. At the opening in Rio de Janeiro the guests will be able to see only its project together with the other works that will be at the Barra Funda space.

Since the exhibition Dengo, at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, in 2010, crochet has become a central element in Neto’s oeuvre. Unlike his classic works in polyamide fabric, where the artist suspended various contents, the current crochet acts as a macro membrane that suspends people. Crafted by hand in an intense and detailed work involving the combination of the colors of the cords, the weight and counterweight of the plastic balls and the people, the arrangement in the space and the gravitational tension between the materials. The result is a delight for the eye that beckons for the corporeal experience.

Não Tenha Medo do Seu Corpo is more than a title for the exhibition; it is a proposal that the artist makes to the audience. Most of the artworks can be not only touched but also entered, in their playful and organic form. To experience the full potential of the artist’s proposal, one must undergo an exercise not only of contemplation but also of immersion and yielding.

Ernesto Neto was born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro where he lives and works. His recent solo shows have most notably included the installation at Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, USA, 2012; the large retrospective show La Lengua de Ernesto: 1987-2011, at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico, which traveled to the Antiguo Colegio de San Idelfonso, Mexico City, 2011-2012; O Bicho SusPenso na PaisaGen, Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2011; The Edges of the World, Hayward Gallery, London, UK, 2010; Neto: Intimacy, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway, 2010; Dengo, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil, 2010; and Anthropodino, Park Avenue Armory, New York, USA, 2009. The artist also participated in two editions of the Venice Biennale, in 2001 and 2003.