EDINBURGH.- The Fruitmarket Gallery presents a group exhibition that examines the transitions that have occurred within the sphere of the object in Brazilian art since the 1950s, and the importance of these transitions in the establishment of the hugely influential experimental tradition in Brazilian contemporary art.

‘Active-object’, ‘relational object’, ‘trans-object’, ‘non-object’, ‘poem object’, ‘graphic object’ are some of the new categories invented as artists struggled to come to terms with the conceptual expansion and redefinition of the object. Connecting the work of well-known Brazilian artists such as Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark and Mira Schendel, with the work of their lesser-known contemporaries and the younger generation of artists that followed, the exhibitionis a celebration of some of the beautiful and artistically radical sculptures with which Brazilian artists have tried to redefine what an art object can actually be. From the more abstract, phenomenological objects of the neoconcrete artists of the 1950s, including Sergio Camargo’s Cubo aberto (Open Cube), 1958–59, through to the conceptual works of the avant-gardes of the 1960s and 70s, including examples of Hélio Oiticica’s Bolides and Lygia Clark’s Bichos, and into the 1980s and to the present day with works including Fernanda Gomes’s untitled sculptural constructions and small objects by Ernesto Neto, this exhibition traces a coherent sequence of artistic experimentation in the realm of the object, investigating this period of great artistic and historic importance, and its influence on contemporary art today.

Paulo Venancio Filho is an art critic, independent curator and professor of art history at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is the curator of many major exhibitions on Latin American art, including Wifredo Lam – Gravuras (Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, 2010); Sergio Camargo: Claro Enigma (Instituto de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo, 2010); Hot Spots (Kunsthaus Zurich, 2009); Time and Place: Rio de Janeiro 1954:1964 (Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2008); Anna Maria Maiolino: Territories of Immanence (Miami Art Central, 2006); Soto: A Construção da Imaterialidade (Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil, 2005); and Rio de Janeiro 1950–1964 in Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis (Tate Modern, 2001). His articles have appeared in major catalogues including Tunga/Cildo Meireles (Kanaal Art Foundation, Belgium); Inside the Visible (The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston); Experiment/Experiência (Museum of Modern Art, Oxford); and Oiticica in London (Tate Modern, London).