Cristiano Lenhardt is returning to Galpão Fortes Vilaça to present O Habitante do Plano para Fora [The Inhabitant of the Plane to the Outside], his second solo show at the gallery. The exhibition features sculptures, drawings and a work with sound. The artworks are based on the artist’s observations on the streets, folkloric manifestations, street vendors and daily life in general.

Pau-Bonito [Beautiful Wood] is a series of modular sculptures made of wood, carved and painted like colorful masts; taut ropes attached to the floor keep them standing up. They thus resemble the structure of circus tents while also recalling caboclo lances, parade flags, maypoles and other folkloric manifestations. Despite using popular culture as a starting point, his work gives rise to new semantic developments through the interplay between the bi- and tridimensional. These structures create planes that divide the space visually, delimiting interpenetrable empty areas. They moreover configure what the artist calls aesthetic areas, demarcating the space where the other artworks in the exhibition operate.

Frequent use is made of holes, transparencies and light, as though the artist were striving to reveal what lies beyond the observed plane. The series of drawings Perfurações [Perforations] deals with these questions: geometric shapes are created with small holes on the paper.  Similarly, the works Cara Preta [Black Face] are made by thousands of metallic dots. These faces, of a meditative expression, are suspended in the space in between the masts of Pau-Bonito, by ropes fixed on circular frames. Drawing and sculpture are juxtaposed in the artist’s practice.

In the work Linha de Laser [Laser Line], the artist’s drawing research is translated into light. Five laser projectors create dynamics and colorful shapes in the wall.  And in Banda Sonora do Vídeo Meu Mundo Jegue [Soundtrack from Meu Mundo Jegue (My Donkey World)] Lenhardt fills the space of the exhibition with sound. An almost abstract and non-linear narrative is plaid by a turntable and it’s necessary for the audience to turn the LP to hear it until the end.

Cristiano Lenhardt was born in Itaara (RS, 1975) and currently lives and works in Recife (PE). In recent years, the artist has actively participated in various exhibitions, artist’s residencies and cultural programs. The shows in which he has taken part have most notably included Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil, Wexner Center for the Arts (Ohio, USA, 2014); Programa Rumos Itaú Cultural (São Paulo, Brazil, 2012); Mythologies, Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, France, 2011); Intimate Bureaucracies, University of Essex (Colchester, England, 2011); Constructing Views, New Museum (New York, USA, 2010); 7th Bienal do Mercosul (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2009); and the Exhibition Program of the Centro Cultural São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil, 2009). He was recently announced as one of the artists selected for the 19th Festival de Arte Contemporânea Sesc_Videobrasil: Panoramas do Sul, to be held this October in São Paulo.