Galeria Fortes Vilaça is pleased to present Conversa [Conversation], a joint exhibition by José Damasceno and Marco Veloso. Conversa consists entirely of new works, and underscores a wide-ranging dialogue involving drawing, sculpture, printmaking, video and tapestry. Damasceno and Veloso’s poetic encounter aim above all at developing a dynamic space for reflection. Nevertheless, the works featured in the show were made by each artist individually, and the collaboration between the artists doesn’t intend to generate a common artistic project. This show is the first of a series of exhibitions that the gallery plans to hold, where one of the represented artists invites another artist for a joint exhibition.  In this way, the discussions between artists about their work and common interests are brought into the exhibition context, thus allowing access to dialogs that would otherwise be unperceived by a wider audience.

Besides the large sculpture Natureza-Morta Exercício [Still-Life Exercise], José Damasceno will show eight prints from the series L’Art de S’Installer (au nord du futur), the marble sculpture Fatia [Slice] and the tapestry Monitor. In Natureza-Morta Exercício, a Travertine marble block shaped as a loaf of bread rests on a wooden white table. In Fatia, a slice of store-bought bread appears in giant scale leaning against the wall. In series of prints L’Art de S’installer (au nord du futur) images of architecture interiors are overlaid with graphic interventions depicting human models for drawing and geometric elements that inhabit the space and suggest absurd and common situations. Containing contrasting elements such as order, randomness, and the unconscious, the works evoke the domestic spatiality inherent to the idea of conversation. These works also reveal a restless aspect of the possibilities around the question of representation in sculpture and images.

For his part, Marco Veloso is showing a series of three polyptychs composed of 16 charcoal-on-paper drawings each, as well as eight individual drawings, two of which are done in pastel, a material that introduces color into the artist’s work. Veloso’s drawing is characterized by the dense overlaying of fragmented signs, at times charged with symbolism, at others transformed into pure abstraction. Recently his drawings have shown a dynamic observation on the overlaid themes of landscape and culture. The artist is also showing the video Simultâneas Sobre a Cidade (O Olhar Distanciado) [Simultaneous Takes on the City (The Distanced Gaze)], created from a set of 11 graphite drawings.