LONDON.-V22 Ashwinstreet presents 'Promised Lands' a solo show by Brazilian artist f. marquespenteado. Working between London and São Paulo, Penteado has worked in fine art fashion and community based projects. Graduating from Goldsmiths in 2002 he was included in the much acclaimed ‘boys who sew’ exhibition organised by the Crafts Council in 2004.

f. marquespenteado’s stitched works address the role of masculine identity through a medium which is traditionally associated with female practioners - his aim being to appropriate this medium in terms of projected masculinity. ‘Promised Lands’ embodies four series, focusing on intertwining terrains; the geographical, political and personal, all of which are caught up in the development and performance of identity within cultural history and f. marquespenteado’s own personal history.

‘Fringed Curtains’ consists of three works which allude to the idea of portals entwined in everyday interactions, and where these could lead. Penteado confers ideas of the occult and erotica as portals of potential. ‘Triple flavour Ice- cream cake covered with Calvary’ juxtaposes sacred imagery of Mary Magdalena, Christ with thieves, Judas and the apostles and through an employed method of repetition f. marquespenteado reverts the scenario away from the biblical towards that of a child’s birthday party.

‘Emeritus Butterfly Catchers’ consists of three portraits of butterfly catchers in the centre of the butterfly nets. They are presented as if they ought to be admired for their achievements. The artist asks us to look at them for their ‘transparency of content within the portrait’ as a reference to the paradigms around contemporary science and anthropocentric debates surrounding subaltern species.

‘Flowers from Mars’ consists of a group of works on embroidered black plastic gauze pierced onto black sand paper. f. marquespenteado explores a new avenue for escapism, through works which examine the recent fascination with Mars and the potential opened by the US government to inhabit it.

‘Odila’s Jewellery’ is a series of four embroidered works on 12 mm neoprene sheets that the artist has dedicated to the African cook whom his parents employed when he was a child. The strong emotional bond they developed over the years is here commemorated: ‘a homage to the feminine handling I pursue in myself’. A crown, a sceptre, a shield and necklace coronate Odila’s history, which, through the vagaries of the history of slavery is virtually unknown to the artist. The jewellery draws on the sacred regalia of the Yoruba nation from Nigeria and Benin from which Brazilian slaves descended.

'My work focuses on voicing men's subtle and emotional histories / stories out of the cultural void of remembrance or inscriptions on these matters.' Private view Friday, 7th September 2007. Show 7th - 30th September 2007.