NEW YORK, NY.- Alexander and Bonin announced the opening of a solo exhibition of photographs by Jonathas de Andrade.

A new series of photographic prints by Jonathas de Andrade are on view in the lower level gallery. Drawing from image stills of his acclaimed film O Peixe (2016), de Andrade has created a series of seven photographic prints, titled O espirito das águas/ The water spirits. Shot in the State of Alagoas in northeast Brazil, the photographs present fishermen as they enact a form of ritual, in which, after catching their prey, they embrace the fish in their arms until its death. To the uninformed viewer, these photographs could very well depict a true animistic rite. This sensually loaded action, however, is one that the artist himself has invented in order to highlight the frequent exoticizing style of ethnographic reportage. The photographs’ soft focus, their bright and warm colors further reinforce the conventional aesthetics of anthropological depictions. Combining nuances of fiction and artifice, Jonathas de Andrade subverts our assumptions and confuses our sensation of truth. The series is co-published by Alexander and Bonin, New York, and Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo.

Jonathas de Andrade (b. 1982, Maceió, Brazil) lives and works in Recife. The artist uses photography, installation and video to traverse collective memory and history, making use of strategies that shuffle fiction and reality. De Andrade collects and catalogues architecture, images, texts, life stories and recomposes a personal narrative of the past. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Museu de Arte do Rio (2014-2015); Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2016-17); The Power Plant, Toronto (2017); New Museum, New York (2017); and Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2017). De Andrade has participated in the New Museum Triennial, New York (2011); 29th São Paulo Biennial (2011); Istanbul Biennial (2011); Lyon Biennial (2013); Performa15, New York (2015); 32nd São Paulo Biennial (2016); and SITE Santa Fe (2016). Jonathas de Andrade's work was also included in Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today at the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2014), Question the Wall Itself at the Walker Art Center (2016-17) and Unfinished Conversations: New Work from the Collection at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017).