Luiz Zerbini presents a series of collages made with old slide frames. The artist began to develop these works in 2010, and from then on they have grown in complexity and scale. The slides currently constitute a body of work with its own history and development.

The collages of slides arose as geometric compositions involving not only the wide range of colors of the plastic and paper frames, but also their original marks and annotations. The original images were substituted by colored films or the frames were left empty. Positioned a few centimeters in front of a white background, these objects took on more precise outlines with the shadows they projected. Gradually, the original images also started to be used in the composition, evidencing the subjects previously merely suggested by the texts.

In Zickzack, a collage with a large vertical format, the colors present in the frame are arranged in such a way as to recall a modernist geometric pattern. Stars and Rocks is a chaotic composition, where the original photos of rock bands are mixed with the composition made by the frames. PB [BW] is a mix of black-and-white frames with photos also in B&W.

The slides come from a range of sources: classes in medicine or art history, passages from the Bible or photos of touristic attractions, a spectrum of subjects that were formerly reproduced for household and often educational use. But the main thrust of this production does not concern the currently obsolete interest in the picturesque manifested by images or media texts. What these collages reveal is a gaze attentive to the abstract potential of the figures and the figuration in the shapes, in a permanent negotiation between the two, a hallmark of Zerbini’s painting.

Luiz Zerbini was born in 1959, in São Paulo, and lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. In 1984, he participated in the anthological exhibition Como vai você, Geração 80? in Rio de Janeiro. He is also a member of the Chelpa Ferro group, which explores the relations between visual arts and music. He is currently holding an overview of his oeuvre at MAM Rio de Janeiro, which is running until December 9. He has previously participated in important art events such as the 29th Bienal de São Paulo, and in exhibitions at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Inhotim in Brumadinho, and the Bienal do Mercosul, among others.