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ARTCAT



Carlos Bevilacqua and Jessica Mein

Simon Preston Gallery
301 Broome Street, 212-431-1105
East Village / Lower East Side
September 5 - October 26, 2008
Reception: Friday, September 5, 6 - 8 PM
Web Site


For this exhibition, Bevilacqua will show a series of floor sculptures, hanging mobiles and wall works constructed from rudimentary materials such as wood, wire, glass and beads. From a background in architecture, which he studied in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro, his deceptively simple constructions emit a disciplined and rigorous logic. Precarious geometries exploring mass and distance evoke Renaissance models for exploration and astronomy while celebrating themes such as invention, musicality, science and religion. What at first appear to be modest experiments in material and form become complex assemblages exposing fragility and vulnerability through physical properties such as tension, gravity, balance and resistance.

Jessica Mein will show two animated videos together with a series of drawings that attempt to capture the patina of time and layered grittiness of the urban landscape. Her videos are comprised of a series of drawings and photographs, in excess of 600 images each, collected predominately from her birthplace in São Paulo and condensed into a complex animated sequence. Each individual image has been cut, collaged and drawn on, incorporating accidents, glitches and errors, which emphasize the characteristics and limitations of the medium. Her drawings employ the quality of mechanized labor, like that of an automaton dutifully performing a task. In an attempt to break the illusion of linear, absolute time, she elicits the perceptual subjectivity of memory. Rather than narrative itself, the work is interested in the physical structure of a story, disrupting technological seamlessness with the inherent faultiness of the handmade.

Carlos Belvilacqua studied at the New York Studio School in 1991-93. In 2006, he exhibited a series of works in collaboration with Ernesto Neto at Galeria Fortes Vilaça in São Paulo and recently held a solo exhibition at the gallery in 2008.

Jessica Mein graduated from an MFA at Hunter College in New York in 2007. Her previous video, DeleveleD, 2007, is currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

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