Jarbas Lopes: nome ar

Luisa Strina presents nome ar, a new exhibition by Jarbas Lopes. Accompanied by critical essays by Érica Burini and Luiz Villares, the new works bring the artist's ecological sensibility into an investigation of the relationships between body, nature, and culture. The exhibition opens on Thursday, October 1, from 6 to 9 pm, with a performance by the artist, and remains on view through November 14.

Since the 1990s, Jarbas Lopes has developed a practice that values manual and collaborative modes of making, bringing together different scales, materials, and artistic languages. nome ar places renewed emphasis on these processes, encouraging a heightened awareness of one's own body, its surroundings, and the sensory experience of nature.

This investigation unfolds both through the organic materials used in the new works and through the forms of engagement they establish with the public. Mattresses made of jute and bamboo leaves invite visitors to lie down, while tiles made of paper and tapioca starch paste line the gallery walls.

In a new series of drawings, Lopes chews charcoal before projecting it onto paper, making his own body part of the image-making process. This bodily dimension extends to the performance the artist presents at the exhibition opening, comprising a sequence of movements that activate the exhibition space and lend the show a theatrical quality. "We are part of nature; therefore, we are already culture," writes Luiz Villares in his essay, quoting Mário Pedrosa. "Jarbas Lopes's art recognizes this inspiration and the continuous, fluid connection between art and nature."

Other works further expand this movement across materials, techniques, and forms of knowledge: books encased and held under tension with elastic bands, woven canvases, wooden easels, and ballpoint-pen drawings. According to Érica Burini, Lopes understands technique as the tactic of human life that supersedes the natural. "In his work, he creates connections between poles that at first seem distant: the wisdom of the cassava's sensitivity; just as the know-how of making mattresses from natural fibers is joined to the knowledge of how to rest and to the white cube."

About the artist

Jarbas Lopes (Nova Iguaçu, Brazil, 1964) lives and works in Maricá, Brazil. His solo exhibitions include Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica (Rio de Janeiro, 2024); Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2023); A Gentil Carioca (Rio de Janeiro, 2023, 2017, 2013, and 2008); MAR - Museu de Arte do Rio (Rio de Janeiro, 2022); Luisa Strina (São Paulo, 2017 and 2009); CRAC Alsace (Altkirch, France, 2017); Tilton Gallery (New York, 2013 and 2010); and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Santiago, 2010).

Selected group exhibitions include Brazil, Beleza?!, Museum Beelden aan Zee (The Hague, 2016); 11th Lyon Biennale (2011); Panorama da Arte Brasileira, MAM São Paulo (2011 and 2001); 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008); 27th São Paulo Biennial (2006); and 8th Havana Biennial (2003), among others.

His work is held in public and institutional collections including the ASU Art Museum (Tempe); Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York); Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, MAM Rio (Rio de Janeiro); Fundación ARCO (Madrid); Instituto Inhotim (Brumadinho); MAM Rio (Rio de Janeiro); MoMA (New York); Museu de Arte da Pampulha (Belo Horizonte); TBA21 - Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna); Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation - CIFO (Miami); and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), among others.