Last month we were down in Sao Paulo and got to make the grand opening of Logo Gallery. Ana Ferraz, who blogs for Fecal Face on the Brazilian art scene, emailed over a few images from that night. Enjoy, and if you're in Sao Paulo, stop through Logo.

WALTER NOMURA (TINHO)

ALEXANDRE CRUZ (SESPER)

Located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the contemporary art gallery LOGO initiates its activities with the group show Perturbo, showcasing works from the artists: Alexandre Cruz (Sesper), Fabio Zimbres and Walter Nomura (Tinho). Three names with a solid background in the Brazilian underground scene, pioneers in different areas such as independent rock, graffiti/street art, and experimental comics, nevertheless maintaining a distinctive artistic production in the studio, specifically conceived for exhibition spaces.

The exhibition Perturbo, through a selection of new, old and site specific pieces, draws our attention to an expressive attitude, unavoidable in order to appreciate one of the most vibrant aspects of contemporary art. Sesper, Zimbres and Tinho, each have their own strategies and specific goals, dealing with life's overloads in big cities, including its means of communication and distraction. The accumulation of messages, logos and characters competing for attention can be either the media which they overlay with painting and drawing, or the raw material they reconfigure through collage. Even the artist's personal visual languages, known to the public from different production phases, are run over or reconstructed in this process.

This exhibition is influenced by digital image manipulation techniques and by the culture of sound sampling, where music is made of pre-existent song parts, although the artworks are created in a rather tangible way. Not by chance these three artists share their roots in zines: the notorious handmade and photocopied underground magazines. This is one of the many countercultural references of this exhibition that also aims to establish other visual connections, above all with the punk rebellion, pop art, nonsense humor and the neo expressionist movements. The name of the exhibition, Perturbo, "I disturb" in Portuguese, was born from a possible reorganization of acrylic and aluminum letters found at a junkyard that originally belonged to a huge home appliance storefront lettering. A composition made by the artists, both a name and a logo, assembled collectively on the gallery wall to mark a beginning and an intention.

About Perturbo artists:

ALEXANDRE CRUZ (SESPER) has spent most of his teenage years skateboarding, making zines and recording cassette tapes in Santos, near Sao Paulo. After joining several independent bands, he has formed the band Garage Fuzz where he is the lead singer, in addition to carrying other musical projects. In Sao Paulo, he has started to make stickers and posters interventions, adopting the alias Sesper while disseminating his art also through t-shirt graphics for street wear brands and record covers for both major and independent labels, among other products. At the same time, he has focused in developing artworks in his studio, gaining visibility at art shows. The raw materials for his torn collages, which are usually drawing oriented and complemented with painting, come from precious magazine collections, zines, records and letters, as well as from his own digitally produced works, printed through industrial process, originally conceived for other means. Sesper was one of the founders of Most, the influential exhibition space in São Paulo during the late 90’s and was one of the curators for the traveling exhibition TRANSFER. As a filmmaker, Sesper directed the documentary RE:Board, the result of an extensive research in Brazilian skateboard’s art history.

FABIO ZIMBRES is a legend in Brazilian alternative comics. His peculiar drawing and his independent publications (zines) have turned him into a frequent collaborator for innovative publishing houses in France, United States and Spain. It is also remarkable to see his efforts to perpetuate the "maudito" species – to which he belongs – through the section Maudito Fanzine, in a magazine called Animal, as well as cocurating the exhibition TRANSFER, or even publishing the work of other artists through his own publishing house, Tonto. He has a particular relationship with the publishing world: paper pads, books, catalogues, chosen either because of their format, their theme or the paper in which they are printed become a medium to apply paint or to scribble on, then to scan and print, continuing this process in an unpredictable cycle. His artworks may seem like products, with packaging and user instructions, and his commercial projects can be as subjective as works of art. He has fun reutilizing, overlaying, completing and transforming his own production often creating modular logics that can take different shapes. Zimbres is a visual artist graduate in the Art Institute of UFRGS, in Porto Alegre, and has attended FAUUSP, in Sao Paulo. As a comic book artist he was published by Folha de Sao Paulo and Chiclete com Banana, among many other vehicles. Books carrying his creative works such as "Panamá o Las Aventuras de mis Siete Tios", "Música para Antropomorfos" and "Vida Boa" are usually hard to track, as much as they are influential to other artists. He often showcases his works in alternative venues, contemporary art galleries and museums.

WALTER NOMURA (TINHO) believes that his essence is the city. All of his work process is permeated by the urban context, from the gathering of materials to the conception and production, even in the discussion that he instigates about space and culture. Tinho is infected by many sources: Rauschenberg, Kurt Schwitters, Edward Hopper, Basquiat, and Jasper Johns, but has also been influenced by skateboarding, punk, hip hop, and graffiti cultures. The outlines, surfaces, and human content of the big cities, particularly Sao Paulo, are reconfigured in his works through collage and painting. Through art, he shares ideologies and aspirations with a poetical language that is coldly engaged in political and social issues. He has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout Brazil and Europe and took part at the Havana's Biennial (Cuba, 2008). He is a pioneer in the country's graffiti dissemination but has also taken a crucial role in breaking the stylistic rules imported from New York. His art has also spread beyond walls and galleries through collaborations with urban culture related brands.

Perturbo (August/September 2011)

LOGO gallery
Rua Artur de Azevedo, 401
São Paulo - Brazil
CEP: 05404-010
www.galerialogo.com
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T: (5511) 3062 2381