RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The exhibition of drawings and paintings “Bruta_la grafia” comes to the ‘Centro Cultural Correios‘, in Rio de Janeiro, after visiting La Paz and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in Bolivia, and Milan, in Italy.
Some 300 works will be displayed, in various formats and supports, created in recent years, inspired by the geography of La Paz as seen from above, when Claudio Gil was on the plane returning from his first visit to the city after taking part in the ‘Bienal de Cartazes de Bolivia‘ (“The Bolivian Poster Biennial”), in 2015.
At the opening of the exhibition, Claudio Gil will paint a canvas of approximately 2m x 3m in front of the public. Guided tours will also be held during the exhibition (times to be confirmed).
Claudio Gil is a designer and calligrapher and, from his studies, turns letters and words into textures, lines, masses of lights and shadows, unveiling the artistic potential of the Western alphabet. The public will have a different vision of the Roman alphabet from the images created by the artist in different scales and with different instruments.
“Bruta appears in my imagination inspired by the geography of the city of La Paz. From the plane, I saw a natural landscape, composed of mountains of rocks with indescribable colors and a thriving forest. All this merged in a raw material way with the geometry imposed by man, observed in urban routes. So I decided to face the challenge of merging baroque and geometric letters. And the result went beyond the fusion between alphabets, it gained an identity of its own,” says Claudio Gil.
“Bruta_la grafia” is an excerpt from the exhibitions held at the Bienal de Bolivia Cartel BICeBé (“Biennial Bolivia Poster BICeBé”) in 2017, at Galeria Manzana 1, in Santa Cruz de La Sierra (2018), and at Acqua su Marte, in Milan (2019).
In the Carioca exhibition, the expo-graphic project encourages visitors to look at the whole from a distance, just like an airplane, and then approach the pieces and observe their textures and elements. The supports range from two types of recycled paper with seeds (carnation and daisy), industrial papers for design and fabric. Most of the pieces were painted with acrylic paint and flat brush. In some of them, metal feathers from Dreaming Dogs Ruling Pens, produced in Santa Maria (Rio Grande do Sul), and ink were used. The fabric canvases were handcrafted in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, by technicians from the Manzana Uno Gallery, and painted with water-based synthetic enamel.
About the artist
Cláudio Gilé, artist, calligrapher, teacher and designer. Master in Design from ESDI-RJ, teaches art, design, and calligraphy. Self-taught calligrapher, he began his first investigations and essays in 2003 and, since then, has promoted more than 300 workshops over the past 15 years, in Brazil, Latin America, and Europe.
He has taken part in several design, calligraphy, and art exhibitions, such as the four editions of the International Calligraphy Exhibition in the Russian cities of St. Petersburg, Velik Novgorod and Moscow, where several of his works are part of the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy collection. Among solo exhibitions, “Kaligrápho & non Kalligrápho (Calligrapher and not Calligrapher)”, at CCJF (Rio de Janeiro), at Centro Cultural Correios (Recife), and at Centro Cultural Brasil en Bolívia, at the Brazilian Embassy in La Paz, in 2017. In 2014, he took part in the ambiance project for the Istituto Europeo di Design – IED building in Rio de Janeiro. He has participated in the last two editions of the Bienal de Cartazes de Bolivia (“The Bolivian Poster Biennial”) in 2015 and 2017, in La Paz, as a lecturer, teacher and exhibiting artist.
He has published works in several countries, such as the books “1000 Artist Journal Pages”, by Dawn Sokol (USA, 2008); “Sketchbooks – As páginas desconhecidas do processo criativo” (“Sketchbooks – The unknown pages of the creative process”), by Roger Basseto, Publisher POP (Brazil, 2010); “Caligrafia para todos” (“Calligraphy for all”), by Leonid Pronenko (Russia, 2011); “Revista Gráfica, Arte Internacional” (“Graphic Magazine, International Art”), by Oswaldo Miran (Brazil, 2012); “Hand to Type”, by Jan Middendorp (Germany, 2012); “The Briem Report”, by Gunnlaugur SE Briem (USA, 2013); “Typism Book One”, by Dominique Falla (Australia 2013), “Tupigrafia Magazine”, by Cláudio Rocha and Tony de Marco (Brazil, 2008 and 2010).
“I believe that a solid, historical, theoretical and practical foundation allows me to explore and transcend the limits of what I practice to keep the calligraphy technique alive. In each drawing, I can always observe a new aspect, something always with a freshness that I believe has become a mark in my work. Drawing is based on the lines of calligraphy, but manages to go beyond them,” says Gil.
Bruta_la grafia
Exhibition of drawings and paintings by Claudio Gil
Opening: Wednesday, September 11th, 7 PM
From September 12th to October 27th, Tuesday to Sunday from 12 noon to 7 PM
Venue: Centro Cultural Correios (“Post Office Cultural Center”)
Address: Rua Visconde de Itaboraí, 20 – Centro – Rio de Janeiro City
Free Entry
Tel.: +55 (21) 2253-1580