Galeria Fortes Vilaça is pleased to present the exhibition Templo do Homem [Temple of Man], by the São Paulo artist Tiago Carneiro da Cunha. In his second exhibition at Fortes Vilaça, Carneiro da Cunha is showing a group of sculptures that treats with intelligence and humor themes such as exoticism, desire, and the very act of collecting. The sculptures of polyester resin are "lapidary" variations of icons of sculpture–classical as well as popular – such as the sphinx, the Buddha, totems, and even the sleepy Mexican.

The artist makes use of classical sculptural procedure in the manufacture of these works, whose prototypes are first sculpted in blocks of plaster. From these prototypes, versions in resins of different colors and textures are produced. Their faceted surfaces are references both to gem cutting–establishing a critical relation between the art object and objects of desire and consumption–and to past geometric artistic movements, from cubism to neoconstructivism.

The artist makes use of classical sculptural procedure in the manufacture of these works, whose prototypes are first sculpted in blocks of plaster. From these prototypes, versions in resins of different colors and textures are produced. Their faceted surfaces are references both to gem cutting–establishing a critical relation between the art object and objects of desire and consumption–and to past geometric artistic movements, from cubism to neoconstructivism.

In both their chosen themes and their scale–most of these sculptures would fit inside an average-sized house–these sculptures dialogue with everyday objects such as knickknacks, travel souvenirs, or religious images. Latin American Thinking and Realistic Gaptooth Skull are good examples of this dialogue. In the first sculpture, a man with a Mexican hat appears in the thinker's pose and in the second, as the title suggests, the skull (the classic "Momento Mori" of Art History) is missing its front teeth. In the gallery, the sculptures are arranged as if they were in an altar whose center is the sculpture Black Funboard, a surfboard sculpted in the form of a giant, perfectly symmetrical head of the kind that formerly adorned the prows of ships. Temple of Man, the exhibition's title, is also the title of a book by the mystic/occultist Schwaler de Lubicz, in which the author compares the human body to the architecture of the pyramids. However, once again, everything indicates that we should not take this reference without a good dose of humor, judging by the "Indiana Jones" style exoticism that permeates the exhibit.