In paintings and objects, Gabriel Lima’s work resorts to the vernacular of popular manifestations and incorporates it into the conceptual space of abstraction. For this exhibition, the artist became involved specifically with Camisa 12, the organized soccer-fan group linked to the Corinthians team. Lima sees in the manifestations of these groups a potential for sociopolitical emancipation, while he approaches the flags and banners they produce as an incorporation of the role that the aesthetic practices can play in this process. His works do not seek, however, to reproduce the procedures of Camisa 12, but rather to evoke aspects that constitute it as a collective identity.

In Culture, the artist arranges four iron gratings on the floor and places a series of plastic bags on top of them. The content of these packages is abstract: some pieces of fabric are simply cut while others are folded and painted, lying inert on the metallic structure.

In the diptychs Peace and Understanding, abstraction plays a central role in gloomy chromatic experiences. Wisps of blue, red and orange cut across the black background of the canvases in images that seem to dissolve in the fog. In 2002, the images – also abstract – are painted on three long canvases hung on the wall to form a portal. Nearly five meters in length, the painting acquires architectural contours.

With a master’s degree from the Royal College of Arts (London, United Kingdom, 2011–2013), Gabriel Lima was born in 1984, in São Paulo, where he lives and works. His recent exhibitions notably include the solo show World interior at Galeria Múrias Centeno (Porto, Portugal, 2014) and the group show A Séance for Geometry at Maddox Arts (London, Reino Unido, 2013). He also carries out projects of curatorship, this year having co-curated the exhibitions Postcodes: soft and Postcodes: kind (both in São Paulo).