For the 2019 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel is delighted to feature a solo presentation of Leda Catunda (São Paulo, 1961) with a comprehensive group of recent paintings and collages. For over thirty years the artist has developed a unique investigation in painting, creating voluptuous, tactile and spirited wall works that incorporate a wide range of shapes, textiles and materials.
Leda Catunda is one of the best-known members of the “Geração 80” — a group that emerged in the Brazilian art scene in the 1980’s amid the end of the military dictatorship. Painting was a central axis and common thread among its artists. Since then Catunda has differentiated herself from her peers by rejecting the neutral aspect of the canvas, instead employing everyday objects such as towels, blankets, velvet, T-shirts or voile. The power of pop culture to transform images into signs of social status and belonging has also been a fundamental theme in the artist’s oeuvre.
In her recent works, excess becomes a principle of construction and organization in response to a world otherwise saturated with images and chaos. Major pieces like Selva [Jungle] (2019) and Línguas Douradas II [Golden Tongues II] (2019) embody the logic of accumulation, where images are not always fully disclosed, but hidden and partly covered in multiple layers of paint and fabric. Color also plays an important role, as it lends a sense of unity and high energy to these works.
As curator Paulo Miyada wrote in a recent essay to be published in the artist’s new monograph, over the years Catunda has mastered the practice of elaborating complex shapes packed with “striking, trivial and attention-seeking” images from the world. Those materials are then reconfigured into her own iconography of organic, sensual forms though a process that involves painting, sewing and collage. Two bands of fabric unite the egg-shaped forms in Friends (2019) like umbilical cords. In a similar way to the lines crossing in Morumbi (2014) to unite different images borrowed from her studio and neighborhood. In the collages Pretzel (2018) and the ongoing series Coisas para Comprar [Things to Buy] (2016–), the artist creates an inventory of product labels from the day-to-day, featuring equally diverse and humorous items, ranging from tea boxes to stockings, chocolate to painkillers.
Catunda’s presentation at the fair also offers a glimpse of her promising upcoming projects in 2020. She will have a solo show at Fondazione ICA (Milan) in July, as well as a couple of two-person exhibitions in March. At Carpintaria (Rio de Janeiro) her work will be featured alongside that of Judy Chicago, whereas at Malba (Buenos Aires) Catunda will be in dialogue with Argentinean artist Alejandra Seeber. A comprehensive monograph on her work is also due to come out next year. The book published by Editora Cobogó will offer an overview of her career from the 80’s to the present, featuring an essay by Paulo Miyada, and an interview with Fernanda Brenner.
Leda Catunda was born in 1961 in São Paulo, where she lives and works. Recent noteworthy solo shows include: Instituto Tomie Ohtake (São Paulo, 2016), Museu Oscar Niemeyer (Curitiba, 2013), MAM Rio (Rio de Janeiro, 2013), Estação Pinacoteca (São Paulo, 2009). Her work is included in various public collections, such as the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Fundación ARCO (Madrid), Blanton Museum of Art (Austin), Instituto Inhotim (Brumadinho), Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo), and MASP (São Paulo).
