Galeria Fortes Vilaça is pleased to present Venezuelan artist Arturo Herrera’s first solo show in Brazil. Using a range of supports including collages, drawings, sculptures, photographs and wall paintings, Herrera investigates the possibilities of abstraction through the fragmentation of forms, constructing an oeuvre replete with references to the history of modern and pop art.

Here, the artist presents four never-before-shown collages that are part of a new series of large-scale artworks on paper. Herrera incorporates ready-made images, using paper cutouts as well as acrylic paint and drawings made with graphite. Mount and Tiergarten / Monument explode in the lush colors of evident brushstrokes and splatters of paint applied to layers of overlaid papers. Come SP, a four-meter-wide predominantly orange triptych, explicates Herrera’s objective: to explore the maximum potentials and utmost formal limits of collage as a language.

Of all the artworks, Flowers is the only one made with sober hues. Against the pastel background, light traces and delicate cutouts balance the composition. The show is completed by Catch, a geometric cutout of woven wool, which gives rise to multiple interpretations and stands as a counterpoint to the lavish use of materials and colors in the more organic collages. In the words of the artist, “abstraction does not precisely dictate what to think about an image […], it makes the artist’s practice more challenging, and the viewer’s experience more subjective.”

Arturo Herrera was born in Caracas in 1959, and currently lives and works in Berlin. An artist of international renown, his work has been shown at important institutions including Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Art Institute of Chicago, USA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Dia Center for the Arts, New York; Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; ICA Philadelphia, USA; UCLA Hammer Museum and MoMA, New York. In Brazil, he participated in the 2005 Bienal do Mercosul. He has received study grants from Guggenheim Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, ArtPace San Antonio, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and DAAD, Berlin.