LUCAS ARRUDA - ASSUM PRETO

 
UNTIL MAY 22, 2022
 
DAVID ZWIRNER | PARIS, FRANCE
 
Lucas Arruda Untitled (from the Deserto-Modelo series), 2021
© Lucas Arruda, Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner
 

David Zwirner is pleased to present Assum Preto, an exhibition of new and recent works by Brazilian artist Lucas Arruda, on view at the gallery’s Paris location.

Arruda’s paintings are intricate, meditative compositions that blur the boundaries between mnemonic and imaginative registers, while bringing into form a complex rendition of landscapes that is more a product of a state of mind than a depiction of reality. The exhibition is titled after a species of blackbird native to eastern Brazil — whose mundane birdsong, according to local tradition, is said to transform into a beautiful melody if the bird’s eyesight has been shaded — Assum Preto continues Arruda’s investigations into light and darkness, and their metaphysical effects. As the artist observes, blindness makes the birds look internally and sing in an organized harmony.

The exhibition features a number of seascapes, jungles, and monochromes, and a new large, abstract composition — all part of the artist’s ongoing Deserto-Modelo series — as well as a light installation. Rather than recalling a particular locale, both the seascapes and the jungles are instead painted from memory, encouraging meditative solitary contemplation.