Exhibition "Painting is good, for me, when it is silent" | Paulo Pasta

Paulo Pasta: LIGHT

"Painting is good, for me, when it is silent"

Museum of Sacred Art of São Paulo - MAS / SPan institution of the Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of São Pauloopens "Paulo Pasta: LightLight" , an exhibition of the plastic artist Paulo Pastacurated by Simon Watson. The show features 19 canvases from the last 10 years, with dimensions ranging from mural to laptop. "Pasta creates paintings that are physical meditations on the metaphysical and more words and emotions when we know what we are showing ...", defines the curator.

Paulo Pasta: Light is the artist's twentieth institutional solo show and the first after "Project and Destination" at the Tomie Ohtake Institute in 2018, curated by Paulo Miyada. Since his first solo show in 1983, Paulo Pasta makes exhibitions continuously and his works are accepted and embraced by public institutions and private collections. Over the years, his painting practice has evolved into a quiet meditation on colour, space and light. Few colour choices - from three to six hues per canvas, all with similar tonal values - his compositional fields suggest a framework with architectural pillars, entablatures and beams. The subtle contrasts between similar colours make them vibrate and move subtly back and forth in space. They elegantly suggest light capture and allude to the ways in which light changes its characteristics throughout the day.

The formal aspect of the paintings by Paulo Pasta suggests a permanent dialogue with Giorgio Morandi and Alfredo Volpi, as well as with Old Masters where, in a similar way, they possess a populist consciousness. They take us out into the street. They invite us to get to know the world around us, of walls and facades painted in vivid colours that can be found in everyday life and everywhere in Brazil. Exuberant in colour and serene in structure, the paintings of Paulo Pasta are deeply meditative and life-affirming.

Highlighted by a minimal installation and dramatic lighting, the exhibition Paulo Pasta: Light is composed of four large mural-scale paintings (two vertical and two horizontal), each flanked by medium-sized paintings that dialogue with its colours and compositions. The second, in the cloister space, are installations from the artist's own studio, where on a running wall you find a meditation room that interacts in a joyful and intimate way.

"Paulo Pasta's paintings are a physical manifestation of the presence of light, as in a reflection during a morning walk. They are also ethereal, suggesting the immateriality of light. Light of the spirit and imagination, light that radiates and elevates." 

Simon Watson

Contemporary Light Project

Contemporary Light is a programme of contemporary art exhibitions that unfolds in various public and private events and cultural actions. Developed by curator Simon Watsonthe project is currently based at the Museum of Sacred Art in São Paulo. In this space, Contemporaneous LIGHT presents thematic exhibitions of guest artists, in order to establish conceptual and material dialogues with works from the institution's historical collection. Although strongly focused on the current Brazilian art scene, LUZ Contemporânea is committed to a variety of practices, cultivating partnerships with performing artists and organizations that produce art events.

The first year of the Contemporary Light, at the Museum of Sacred Artwas conceived as a trilogy that aims to respond to the pandemic. The cycle began with João Trevisan: Body and Soulfollowed by Esperançaa collective work with 12 artists, and culminates with Paulo Pasta: Light. The trilogy goes from dark to light, from the nocturnes of João Trevisan to the meditation of Paulo Pasta on light.

Exhibition: "Paulo Pasta: Light"

Artist: Paulo Pasta

Curator: Simon Watson

Opening: 04 September 2021, at 11 am.

Duration: From 4 September to 8 November 2021

Venue: Sacred Art Museum of São Paulo || MAS/SP

AddressAvenida Tiradentes, 676 - Luz, São Paulo (next to Tiradentes Subway Station)

Tel: 11 3326-5393 - additional information

HoursTuesday to Sunday, from 11am to 5pm (entry allowed until 4pm)

Admission: R$ 6,00 (Full) | R$ 3,00 (national half-entry for students, private network teachers and Young I.D. - upon proof) | Free on Saturdays | Exemptions: children up to 7 years old, adults over 60, teachers from the public network, people with disabilities, members of ICOM, policemen and military - with proof

TICKETS - Ticket Purchase

Number of works: 19

Techniques: paintings

Dimensions: various

The artist - Paulo Pasta (Ariranha/SP, 1959)

PhD in visual arts from the School of Communications and Arts, University of São Paulo - ECA / USP (SP). He received the Emile Eddé Fine Arts Scholarship from MAC/USP (SP) in 1988. Among the exhibitions held, highlights include a solo exhibition at Centro Cultural Maria Antonia in 2011, the Panorama of Panoramas at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo in 2008, and a solo exhibition at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo in 2006. As a professor, he taught painting at Faculdade Santa Marcelina - FASM, between 1987 and 1999, and drawing at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, between 1995 and 2002. He has been a professor at USP since 2011 and at FAAP since 1998. Realized solo exhibitions in several spaces, such as Instituto Tomie Ohtake and Galeria Millan, São Paulo, SP (2018); Galeria Carbono, São Paulo, SP, and Paulo Darzé, Salvador, BA (2017); Embassy of Brazil, Rome, Italy (2016); Galeria Millan and Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, SP (2015); SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo, SP (2014); Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, RS (2013); Centro Cultural Maria Antonia, São Paulo, SP (2011); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (2008); and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, SP (2006), among others. He has also participated in important group exhibitions, including: MAC-USP in the 21st Century - The Age of Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo, SP (2017); Clube de Gravura - 30 Years, Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, SP, and The Many and the One, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, SP (2016); 30 x Bienal, Pavilhão da Bienal, São Paulo, SP (2013); Europalia, International Art Festival, Brussels, Belgium (2011); Matisse Today, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, SP (2009); Panorama of Panoramas, MAM-SP, SP (2008); MAM(na)Oca, Oca, São Paulo, SP (2006); Arte por Toda Parte, 3ª Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, RS (2001); Brasil + 500 - Mostra do Redescobrimento, Pavilhão da Bienal, São Paulo, SP (2000); and III Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador (1991), among others. His works are part of several collections, among which: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, SP; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, SP; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, RJ; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, SP; Museu de Belas-Artes do Rio de Janeiro, RJ; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, USA; and Kunsthalle, Berlin, Germany.

The curator - Simon Watson

Born in Canada and raised between England and the United States, Simon Watson is an independent curator and cultural events specialist based in New York and São Paulo. A veteran of thirty-five years of experience on the cultural scene on three continents, Watson has conceived and curated over 250 art exhibitions for galleries and museums, and coordinated art collecting consultancy programmes for numerous institutional and private clients. Over the past three decades, Watson has worked with emerging artists and the under-recognized, bringing them to the attention of new audiences. Her area of curatorial expertise is identifying visual artists with exceptional potential, many of whom are now internationally recognised in the blue-chip category and are represented by some of the world's most famous and respected galleries. 

The museum

O Museum of Sacred Art of São Pauloan institution of the Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of São Paulo, is one of the most important of its kind in the country. It is the result of an agreement signed between the State Government and the Mitra Arquidiocesana de São Paulo, on October 28th, 1969, and its installation dates from June 29th, 1970. Since then, the Museum of Sacred Art of São Paulo has occupied a wing of the Monastery of Nossa Senhora da Imaculada Conceição da Luz, on Tiradentes Avenue, downtown São Paulo. The building is one of the most important monuments of Paulista colonial architecture, built in "taipa de pilão", a rare example remaining in the city, the last conventual farm of the city. It was protected by the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute in 1943, and by the Council for the Defense of the Historic, Artistic and Architectural Heritage of the State of São Paulo in 1979. Most of its collection has also been under IPHAN protection since 1969, and its priceless heritage includes relics of Brazilian and world history. O Museum of Sacred Art of São Paulo holds a vast collection of works created between the 16th and 20th centuries, with rare and significant examples. There are more than 10 thousand items in the collection. It has works by renowned names such as Frei Agostinho da Piedade, Frei Agostinho de Jesus, Antônio Francisco de Lisboa, the "Aleijadinho" and Benedito Calixto de Jesus, among many others, anonymous or not. The collections of cribs, silver and goldsmithery, lamps, furniture, altarpieces, altars, vestments, liturgical books and numismatics also stand out.

SACRED ART MUSEUM OF SÃO PAULO - MAS/SP

Chairman of the Board of Directors - José Roberto Marcellino dos Santos

Executive Director - José Carlos Marçal de Barros

Planning and Management Director - Luiz Henrique Marcon Neves

Museologist - Beatriz Cruz