Romper o Dia, Crack of Dawn, Rio de Janeiro-based artist Tatiana Chalhoub’s first solo exhibition in São Paulo opens on March 23rd at Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel in São Paulo.

Chalhoub’s production is structured according to the technical and formal parameters of painting, and extrapolates two-dimensionality through ceramics, in roughly textured reliefs. The artist’s technique incorporates the happenstance and unpredictability of studio practice, projecting pictorial solutions through breakage, noise and processual detours. Pieces of acetate, shards of ceramics, swaths of canvas, fragments and residue are processed in reinterpretations of nature, art history or mental notes, gathering disparate parts in a world of liquid hues and aquatic tones. 

In her works, the artist employs pigmented ceramics both as collages and as surfaces for painting, with enameled or oxidized finishes that acquire the outline of landscape or still life. From small-scale pieces to larger paintings on refractory plaques and large collages, the artist crosses heterogeneous scales and different approaches to the image. These pieces show representations of the botanical, and translate into matter the sensible qualities of outdoor environments. 

The show’s title alludes to fracture as a technique, but also harbors other meanings. Apart from the recurrence of fractures and fissures on each surface, the liquified consistency of the paintings and layered enamel awaken ambiances that are simultaneously hot and cold, dark and luminous, like the first instants of daybreak.