NEW YORK, NY.- David Nolan Gallery began the solo exhibition of recent paintings by Paulo Pasta (b. 1959) this past November 4th, marking the Brazilian artist’s first presentation in North America, with special thanks to Simon Watson. The event will be on view until December 23rd, 2022.
Paulo Pasta has established himself as one of the revered painters of abstraction in his native Brazil. Pasta’s practice is dedicated to collapsing the passage of time into fields of color and geometries of lines and crosses. The elegant and poetic works are representations of imagined space, where parallel, perpendicular diagonal lines suggest a metaphysical architecture. Rendered in evocative hues of oil paint that the artist hand mixes to perfect tonality, the work recalls that of Mexican architect, Luis Barragán.
Drawing endless inspiration from São Paulo, Pasta creates “landscapes” of a different type, mainly through memory. He considers his process synthetic, a sensitive imagining of invented and realized space. Pasta’s work draws from various art historical traditions in terms of aesthetic, color and motivation. From Morandi, came Pasta’s embrace of subtlety and simplicity, particularly in terms of color palette and chromatic variation; from Giotto, a fascination with the temporal suspension which emanates from his frescoes.
"To approach one of Pasta’s abstractions is to enter a world in which everything is simultaneously objective and entirely relational. His structures are created with an almost deadpan structure of interlocking planes, but the interaction of colors is such that they generate a marvellous vibration that makes the experience of looking at the work sensual and seductive. The rational and the sensual interact seamlessly in his compositions. In this dialogue between reason and feeling, Pasta is reflecting on one of the most distinctive aspects of the history of abstract art in Brazil." - Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, "Paulo Pasta: Between Landscape and Abstraction".
Pasta holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Museu de Arte Sacra de São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte, Curitiba, Brazil (2019); Instituto Tomie Ohtake and Anexo Millan, São Paulo, Brazil (2018); Galeria Carbono, São Paulo, Brazil, and Paulo Darzé, Salvador, Brazil (2017); Palazzo Pamphilj, Rome, Italy (2016); Galeria Millan, Anexo Millan and Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil (2015); Sesc Belenzinho, São Paulo, Brazil (2014); Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2013); Centro Cultural Maria Antonia, São Paulo, Brazil (2011); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2008); Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil (2006); among others.
Pasta's work is featured in various collections, such as Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil; Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de la Universidad de São Paulo, Brazil; Museu Nacional de Belas Artes do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, USA; and Kunsthalle Berlin, Germany, amongst others.
