Exhibition: "This smile that emanates from me

Poet, why do you cry?

What a sad melancholy.

It's that my soul ignores

The splendour of joy.

This smile that emanates from me,

My own soul deceives

Carolina Maria de Jesus

Onete | Guilherme Almeida

BASE opens its agenda with the first individual exhibition, in a cultural circuit, of the artist Guilherme Almeida - "This smile that emanates from me", with 35 works that include a cut from the series 'Destruição dos Mercados I', with paintings on newspaper; 'Destruição dos Mercados II e III', with paintings on canvas, all created in the period between 2021 and 2022. The exception is 'Freshmen', a painting from 2018, which opens the exhibition. The curatorship is by Paulo Azeco and the artistic coordination by Daniel Maranhão.

"This smile that emanates from me", excerpt from a poem by Carolina Maria de Jesus that names the exhibition, does not appear randomly since the 'smile' to which the author refers has always inspired the artist: "Carolina is everything my work is about. It is about this, it is the smile of victory, the one that reflects and inspires people, the one that tries to erase but one day it rises again". His research, which has his personal experience as its central focus, offers the black smile as a weapon against pre-existing prejudices ingrained in peoples' daily lives. "This Smile that Emanates from MeIt's a light, it's something to talk about us, our generation, the past generation, achievements and learning," explains the artist.

According to Paulo Azeco, "the exhibition presents an interesting parallel between the biographical character of the works and the representation of well-known, winning black people. The first work of the exhibition, and the only one before the series, helps to understand the artist's practice of using his experience to create an aesthetic vocabulary. It presents young people, just like him, overflowing with joy for entering public university."

The series 'Destruction of Markets', whose research began in 2019, portrays various personalities - Maju Coutinho, Emicida, Elza Soares, Mano Brown, Baco Exu do Blues, Basquiat, Dona Onete, Nath Finanças, Carolina Maria de Jesus, Daiane dos Santos, Viola Davis, among others - who have achieved success in their fields and, with Guilherme Almeida's sensitivity, are portrayed with 'smiles' filled with gold and silver. In Destruction of Markets I,"the series of portraits on newspaper, the largest and main painting is a proud portrait of his family, echoing gratitude. All the others are figures that the artist considers as inspiration, the ones that represent that it is possible for a black person to be victorious and successful in all areas" points out the curator.

Regarding the process of creation of the series, in a first stage, the paintings are executed on newspaper and in the subsequent stages the artist returns to canvas, a support previously used when his theme was still linked to abstractionism. When abstract, Guilherme was connected to shapes and colours. Painting is never unique. The paints thrown over the chosen support are in several layers, paint over paint, colour over colour. The artist works with contrasts both in the choice of colours and in the materials chosen: "the lighter colour fighting with the darker one; of the cheapest support with the most valued paint and so I go on building", he explains.

Guilherme Almeida is an artist who supports himself with notes that come from his own visuality of the world and of the people who inhabit it. His personal memories and some photographic records as support are the basis of his creations. There is no draft. A few words are put on paper to conduct the theme and he begins to paint. The process is agile, fast, with more freshness, where the theme is lapidated through repetition where series are born. The painting is never unique.

For Guilherme Almeida, making art has goals and directions. It is of the utmost importance to position oneself beforehand in relation to the message that his work will convey. He is fully aware that, although this is not a new position, it is different from what is expected of a black artist in the visual arts: "I want to talk about our lives, good and bad things, but in a way that brings my equal to reinvigorate, that raises its head, that destroys its bonds".

"Contemporary Art changes according to its time. Today what is in vogue (and sometimes it seems fashionable) is to talk about minorities, racial, gender and social issues, as we would say in the best dialect,"it's in the mouth of the people". What I am doing, simply, is to talk about myself, to talk about what I am part of. My work is truth. I don't know if it will serve Art forever...".

Guilherme Almeida

"Guilherme has always understood in his family that despite the modest way they lived, it is possible to dream and it is possible to be happy. And this exhibition overflows with smiles and victories even when they clash with still open slavocratic wounds. The ensemble presented here is of unique creative strength and aesthetic, but above all it is a revolutionary act."

Paulo Azeco

The artist - Guilherme Almeida (Salvador, BA 2000)

Lives and works in Salvador, BA. Graduated in Fine Arts at the School of Fine Arts at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), he conducts his production in narratives that highlight the composition of the black body in the contemporary context. A resident of the Uruguay neighbourhood on the outskirts of Salvador (BA), his recent production is influenced by urban life and pop culture, especially hip-hop. He develops paintings and three-dimensional works in non-conventional supports such as newspaper, Eucatex and other scraps. Her urgent and firmed discourse, in everyday life, produces images in which the body is full of power and autonomy. Since 2017 she has participated in several group exhibitions and artistic interventions in Brazil and abroad.

SERVICE

Exhibition: "This smile that emanates from me"

Artist: Guilherme Almeida

Curator: Paulo Azeco

Artistic Coordinator: Daniel Maranhão

Administrative Coordinator: Leonardo Servolo and Cássia Saad

Assembly and exhibition: Harpia Design e Produções

Opening: March 12 - Saturday - 12:00 to 17:00

Period: from 15 March to 23 April 2022

Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, from 11am to 7pm; Saturday, from 11am to 3pm.

Venue: BASE Gallery

Address: Al Franca 1030, Jardim Paulista || 01422-002 | São Paulo, SP

Phone: (11) 3062 6230 || WhatsApp (11) 98327 9775 / (11) 98116 6261

E-mail: contato@galeriabase.com.br

Website: http://www.galeriabase.com

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Number of works: 35

Technique: acrylic on newspaper; acrylic on canvas

Dimensions: n/a

Price: no consultation