Lucas Arruda, 2018, Reedition in 2021
« The light is the link between my works, as if I balanced shadow and light. » Lucas Arruda
The first monograph of Lucas Arruda explores, through a selection of the artist’s most beautiful works, the research he leads with patience and method through his sky, marine, and jungle landscapes. This publication is enriched by texts by Fernanda Brenner (curator and director of the Pivô independent art center in São Paolo) and Chris Sharp (curator and freelance author, based in Mexico), as well as extracts of a conversation between Lucas Arruda and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Lucas Arruda was born in 1983 in São Paolo (Brazil). He lives and works in São Paolo. His works were recently exhibited in several group exhibitions: « Debout!» at the Pinault Collection, Rennes (2018); « Nature and Abstraction » at the Beyeler Foundation, Basel (2018); « Soft Power. Arte Brasil » in Kunsthal KAde, Amersfoort (2016), « New Sha-mans/Novos Xamãs: Brazilian Artists » at the Rubell Familly Collection, Miami (2016). He is represented by Mendes Wood DM and David Zwirner.
128 pages with 77 illustrations. Hardcover. Format 24.2 x 29 x 1.5 cm.
Hans Ulrich Obrist: Do you have any other parallel realities, besides monochromes and landscapes?
Lucas Arruda: Yes, jungles.
Hans Ulrich Obrist: Yes of course, the jungles. What prompted the jungles?
Lucas Arruda: In fact, I mostly paint imagined horizons. But, in the jungle’s case, there is a less elusive connection. I have a house in the jungle near São Paulo where I go all the time. I guess jungles hold a particular mystery, a sense of imminence – as if something is always about to happen. And for these kinds of paintings I often evoke a character: Curupira. He is a mythological character with inverted feet, a young trickster who protects the jungle. Like Hermes, or Loki, he fools us in order to prevent human connections to the forest. You never know what to expect from Curupira: he might help you or just as easily kill you. The legend says that he is the embodiment of the forest, and I find this especially compelling. The jungle is the only verticality in my work, which somehow grounds it. But Curupira is there to mess around with this idea.
(Extract of the interview of Lucas Arruda in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, April 2018 in Lucas Arruda’s monograph p.28)
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The first comprehensive monograph on the work of Brazilian painter Lucas Arruda elucidates the artist’s intricate, meditative compositions.
This monograph presents three groups of works loosely characterized as seascapes, jungles, and monochromes. Collectively titled Deserto-Modelo, they have an ephemeral, transient quality.