Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel and Gomide&Co are proud to present Dois pra cá, dois pra lá, an exhibition by Marcelo Cipis and Yuli Yamagata at Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro. In this dialog, the artists combine their formal vocabularies and thematic repertoires. They place their works’ figures, textures and colors in conversation, forming a sort of furnished house inhabited by their characters. Cipis’ paintings, drawings and sculptures start from an amalgamation of decorative graphic idioms and post-industrial formal solutions, sharing space with Yamagata’s hyperbolic, voluminous and texturally hybrid forms.

These works by Marcelo Cipis draw an ambiguous temporal frame, employing Art-Deco angles from the 1920s, the color palette and the sophistication of 1950s posters and furniture. From the 1960s he appropriates pastel-colored product and packaging designs and building drawings reminiscent of the plug-in modules of pop architecture. In Perna Pêndulo (2017), Cipis creates a clock whose pendular pointer is a human leg, elegantly clothed in high heels and a pink skirt. In Lavabo (2020), he paints blue-haired figures among a sink, mirror, floormat and lamp. It is unclear if the figures are a pattern on the wall or if they float among the objects. This encounter between the human body and functional or decorative elements lends Marcelo Cipis’ scenographic architecture its timeless, uncanny character.

In Yuli Yamagata’s sculptures, paintings and painting-sculptures, articles of clothing mingle with food, everyday objects, human silhouettes and animal shapes. Elastane, silicon fiber, sewing thread, cotton and shibori­-dyed fabric flesh out these figures. The artist employs sewing as drawing, stuffed and textile elements as painting techniques and the volumetric dimension of sculptures organize her works’ spatiality. She built Revisteiro (2023) from plastic corncobs, iron, prosthetic feet and sneakers; while Planta Ordenadora (2023) is a computer desk with serpentine forms, a pillow in lieu of a monitor and an amputated foot hidden inside. Yamagata’s household furniture seems to obey alien ergonomics, and both works are stained by an otherworldly green resin.

This gathering of works ushers in a context in which a domestic atmosphere and the ubiquitous presence of its inhabiting products are transformed through ingenious, ironic procedures. An unavoidable strangeness is established in the realm of the habitual. Both artists’ work gives the commonplace a fantastic, playful and unsettling implications.

Marcelo Cipis (São Paulo, 1959). Lives and works in São Paulo, represented by Gomide&Co. Among his recent solo exhibitions are Enjoy at Bergamin & Gomide (São Paulo, 2021); A Maravilhosa Cipis Transworld at Spike Art Quarterly (Berlin, 2017) and Marcelo Cipis & Thomaz Rosa, at BFA Boatos Fine Arts (Milan, 2016), as well as a participation in the 14^th Bienal de Curitiba, in 2019, with paintings from his Drops series.  In 1991, he took part in the 21st Bienal de São Paulo with the installation “Cipis Transworld, Art, Industry & Commerce”.

Yuli Yamagata (São Paulo, 1989). Lives and works in São Paulo, represented pela Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel. Among her recent solo exhibitions are Afasta Nefasta, Ordet, Milan, Italy (2022); Insônia, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Nervo, MAC Niterói – Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, Niterói, Brazil (2021); Sweet Dreams, Nosferatu, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, USA (2021); Art Basel Parcours, Basel, Switzerland (2021); Bruxa, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon, Portugal. Highlight group shows include The Post Modern Child, MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan, Korea (2023); Who Tells a Tale Adds a Tail, Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA (2022); FARSA. Língua, fratura, ficção: Brasil-Portugal, Sesc Pompéia, São Paulo, Brasil (2020).