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Artist Statement
24 Colors – for Blinky is a work composed of 24 shaped, monochromatic panels that Imi Knoebel dedicated to Blinky Palermo and that marks the beginning of Knoebel’s chromatic research and conscious color usage. It’s a long address, an enunciation built piece by piece. It leads to the notion of insistent and resistant meaning, where each painting of the series has a formal equivalence, a dystopia counterbalanced by the subjective color structure. I imagine that from the first painting of the series the other elements followed, after a logical visual and spatial formation, where each work, in its simplicity but radical presence, played a specific role. Twenty-one large panels in which the color and shape of each monochrome is different are hung along facing walls and three other are stacked against the end wall of the room. The panel in the middle of the stack is painted on both sides. A narrative encompassing all the formal differences of the installation needs to be recreated by the viewer with a specific access to the complex context of abstraction. The viewer’s reading of this work will be composed by signs as shapes of colors, their correlations and positions, the disposable stack, and the address of the title. A visual disjunction of refracted images expands on a textual and systematic construction of abstraction.
This formal structure is similar to what Jacques Rancière calls the phrase-image in Jean-Luc Godard. Godard constructs his Histoire(s), his narratives, with already deconstructed blocks of images and texts. He insists on a timeline that resists closure and is set to form in a repetitive structure, the reiteration of ideas in a continuous search for meaning as a process of thought. According to Rancière, the concept phrase-image – a negotiation between a symbolist synthesis and a dialectic editing – produces the continuous sense of heterogeneity and mystery in a Godard film sequence. Thus, for Rancière the future of images is the metamorphic image, the image that is able to question it’s own artificiality as a process of thought, signifying beyond the common metaphorical sense of a generalized idea of art images, and invoking for itself the place of a displaced poesis, a possible cultural construction.
My recent work might be placed along a similar line of thought. Paintings built out of found fabrics and single layered shaped colors: a continual return to the interpretation of images. I mix disposed shapes, disposable colors, forgotten images and ever consumable materials as grounds to experiment with visual constructions that, one after the other, reiterate their own internal search for content, as phrases do. Content begins being formed through the process of handling sewn fabrics, and then through a collage of visual decisions where there is always a blank or unconcluded, loose string. This string may sometimes catch the viewer, that invited by the reading opportunity of the object’s building and its sparkling layer of paint, will be left with color sensations, textures, imprinted retinal signs, and a suit of actions. These actions cannot be undone – assumed as integral to these images that happen as paintings, presented as aesthetic objects, they invoke a series of crafted gestures borrowed from the legacy of modernism in an aim to become conclusive but which end up self-critical and collapsing. There is dialectic between the layers of paint and the ground where the space for the viewer is created, as well as a tension between signs and signifiers – for instance, the coincidence of the seams of the ground with the limits of the colored shapes, and in general the patterns by which formal logics are set up or interrupted. Likewise, a contextual gap or transitory state is suggested when displacing the paintings from their stable stretchers and placid rectangles and turning them into flags, screens or repetitive panels of modular compositions. Adding on the disposable quality of images, this formal interweaving practice affirms the significance of these elements that most possibly become latent, even commonly submerged, yet hardly ever effaced, and are though accountable for an image archeology. This archeology has its research field in art history and art practice in general. The ethics of adding to the thick archive of art history believes in the intrinsic value of cultural labor, and in the investigation of abstraction and its history as a possible trajectory for thought through painting and practice.
24 Colors – for Blinky is a work composed of 24 shaped, monochromatic panels that Imi Knoebel dedicated to Blinky Palermo and that marks the beginning of Knoebel’s chromatic research and conscious color usage. It’s a long address, an enunciation built piece by piece. It leads to the notion of insistent and resistant meaning, where each painting of the series has a formal equivalence, a dystopia counterbalanced by the subjective color structure. I imagine that from the first painting of the series the other elements followed, after a logical visual and spatial formation, where each work, in its simplicity but radical presence, played a specific role. Twenty-one large panels in which the color and shape of each monochrome is different are hung along facing walls and three other are stacked against the end wall of the room. The panel in the middle of the stack is painted on both sides. A narrative encompassing all the formal differences of the installation needs to be recreated by the viewer with a specific access to the complex context of abstraction. The viewer’s reading of this work will be composed by signs as shapes of colors, their correlations and positions, the disposable stack, and the address of the title. A visual disjunction of refracted images expands on a textual and systematic construction of abstraction.
This formal structure is similar to what Jacques Rancière calls the phrase-image in Jean-Luc Godard. Godard constructs his Histoire(s), his narratives, with already deconstructed blocks of images and texts. He insists on a timeline that resists closure and is set to form in a repetitive structure, the reiteration of ideas in a continuous search for meaning as a process of thought. According to Rancière, the concept phrase-image – a negotiation between a symbolist synthesis and a dialectic editing – produces the continuous sense of heterogeneity and mystery in a Godard film sequence. Thus, for Rancière the future of images is the metamorphic image, the image that is able to question it’s own artificiality as a process of thought, signifying beyond the common metaphorical sense of a generalized idea of art images, and invoking for itself the place of a displaced poesis, a possible cultural construction.
My recent work might be placed along a similar line of thought. Paintings built out of found fabrics and single layered shaped colors: a continual return to the interpretation of images. I mix disposed shapes, disposable colors, forgotten images and ever consumable materials as grounds to experiment with visual constructions that, one after the other, reiterate their own internal search for content, as phrases do. Content begins being formed through the process of handling sewn fabrics, and then through a collage of visual decisions where there is always a blank or unconcluded, loose string. This string may sometimes catch the viewer, that invited by the reading opportunity of the object’s building and its sparkling layer of paint, will be left with color sensations, textures, imprinted retinal signs, and a suit of actions. These actions cannot be undone – assumed as integral to these images that happen as paintings, presented as aesthetic objects, they invoke a series of crafted gestures borrowed from the legacy of modernism in an aim to become conclusive but which end up self-critical and collapsing. There is dialectic between the layers of paint and the ground where the space for the viewer is created, as well as a tension between signs and signifiers – for instance, the coincidence of the seams of the ground with the limits of the colored shapes, and in general the patterns by which formal logics are set up or interrupted. Likewise, a contextual gap or transitory state is suggested when displacing the paintings from their stable stretchers and placid rectangles and turning them into flags, screens or repetitive panels of modular compositions. Adding on the disposable quality of images, this formal interweaving practice affirms the significance of these elements that most possibly become latent, even commonly submerged, yet hardly ever effaced, and are though accountable for an image archeology. This archeology has its research field in art history and art practice in general. The ethics of adding to the thick archive of art history believes in the intrinsic value of cultural labor, and in the investigation of abstraction and its history as a possible trajectory for thought through painting and practice.
CV
BIO
Ana Cardoso is an artist born in Lisbon and living in New York. She is represented by Nuno Centeno Gallery in Porto and Carlos Carvalho, Lisbon. Cardoso has recently contributed work to Besides, With, Against and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture curated by Debra Singer, The Kitchen, New York; Tactical Support: Curators Choice curated by Anthony Huberman, Tracy Williams Ltd, New York; Alpha & at On Stellar Rays, New York; Llama, Conduits, Milan; Expanded Painting International, Prague Biennale 5, Prague. She studied at the Fine Arts University of Lisbon, at HdK, Berlin, and received a MFA from Hunter College in 2006. Ana Cardoso’s work has been reviewed in Artforum, Flash Art and NY Arts Magazine among others.
.
EDUCATION
2006. MFA, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York
2002. BFA, Fine Arts University of Lisbon, Lisbon
2001. Visiting Student, HdK - Höchschule der Kunste, Berlin
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011.
(Upcoming) Conduits, Milan
(Upcoming) Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon
2010.
Monologic, Nuno Centeno, Porto
2009.
No. 3/No.13, Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon
2008.
Sans Image, VPF Gallery, Lisbon
Sonambulism, Poste-Ite Room, Pedro Oliveira, Porto
2007.
Assorted Paintings, curated by Miguel Amado and Filipa Oliveira, Artecontempo, Lisbon
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011.
Yin Yang Music curated by Amy Granat, Non-Objectif Sud (NOS), Tulette, France
Llama 2 curated by Ana Cardoso, Nuno Centeno, Porto
Agora Não, Not Yet curated by Filipa Ramos & António Contador, The Barber Shop, Lisbon
Expanded Painting International curated by Nicola Trezzi, Prague Biennial 5, Prague
Tax Day News & Smoke curated by Roger Van Voorhes, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
Dear Thick And Thin curated by Arfus Greenwood, ME Contemporary, Copenhagen
Clairvoyance with Boris Achour, curated by Paul Branca, Soloway, Brooklyn
2010.
Llama curated by Lisa Oppenheim, Conduits, Milan
The Miami Set with Amy granat and Flora Wiegmann, by invitation of Liutauras Psibilskis, NADA Art Fair 2010, Miami Beach
Portugal Arte EDP 2010, International Contemporary Art Biennale, Portugal Pavilion, Lisbon
Acts Are for Actors curated by Ana Cardoso, Southfirst Gallery, New York
Exhibition #3 curated by João Simões, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
Alpha & curated by Candice Madey, On Stellar Rays, New York
2009.
Besides, With, Against and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture, curated by Debra Singer, The Kitchen, New York
Miguel Amado Presents curated by Miguel Amado, ISCP – International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York
Tactical Support: Curator’s Choice curated by Anthony Huberman, Tracy Williams Ltd., New York
Strip/Stripe curated by Test, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
Territorial Pissings, Emmerico Nunes Cultural Center, Sines, Portugal
Lá Fora – Portuguese Artists Abroad, Electricity Museum and the Presidential Museum of Portugal, Lisbon
2008.
Across Across Across with Jacob Kassay, in Joao Simoes: Nov 5 - 26, 2008, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
E-flux Video Rental, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
Bendover/Hangover: An Evening with Cinema Zero, organized by Amy Granat, White Flag Projects, St Louis, Missouri
2007.
The Holiday Shopping Show – Limited edition artist multiples, curated by Robin Khan, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
Fidelidade Mundial Young Painters Prize, 9th Edition, Culturgest, Lisbon
Lisboa – Luanda – Maputo, Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon
GRANTS and AWARDS
2010. INOV-ART Grant, Direcção Geral das Artes, Ministry of Culture, Portugal
2007. Amadeo Souza-Cardoso Painting Prize, 6th Edition: Taminvest Prize
2004-2006. Study Grant, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Luso-American Foundation, for MFA Degree Program - Hunter College, CUNY
2001. Erasmus Grant, HdK, Berlin
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Critic's Picks: Llama, Artforum.com, by Marco Tagliaferro, Feb 2011
Metafisica? Talvez by Oscar Faria, in Ipsilon, Publico, July 23, 2010
Besides, With, Against and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture reviewed by Suzanne Hudson, Artforum International, February 2010
Hints of Something Human, ArtSlant, by Michelle Levy, Jan 2010
Critic's Picks: Ana Cardoso, Artforum.com, by Miguel Amado, Aug 2009
Ana Cardoso, No. 3 / No. 13, by Celso Martins, Expresso, Actual, Aug 1, 2009
Top 10 by Stefan Tcherepnin, Artforum, March 2009
Hippy Holiday, Flash Art online, Nicola Trezzi, Jan 2009
PLMJ Collection Catalogue, edited by Miguel Amado, PLMJ Foundation, 2009
LÁ FORA, Exhibition Catalogue, edited by Joao Pinharanda, EDP Foundation and the Presidential Museum of Portugal, 2009
NY Arts Magazine, Ana Teixeira Pinto in Conversation with Ana Cardoso in Lisbon Seen, June 2008
BIO
Ana Cardoso is an artist born in Lisbon and living in New York. She is represented by Nuno Centeno Gallery in Porto and Carlos Carvalho, Lisbon. Cardoso has recently contributed work to Besides, With, Against and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture curated by Debra Singer, The Kitchen, New York; Tactical Support: Curators Choice curated by Anthony Huberman, Tracy Williams Ltd, New York; Alpha & at On Stellar Rays, New York; Llama, Conduits, Milan; Expanded Painting International, Prague Biennale 5, Prague. She studied at the Fine Arts University of Lisbon, at HdK, Berlin, and received a MFA from Hunter College in 2006. Ana Cardoso’s work has been reviewed in Artforum, Flash Art and NY Arts Magazine among others.
.
EDUCATION
2006. MFA, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York
2002. BFA, Fine Arts University of Lisbon, Lisbon
2001. Visiting Student, HdK - Höchschule der Kunste, Berlin
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011.
(Upcoming) Conduits, Milan
(Upcoming) Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon
2010.
Monologic, Nuno Centeno, Porto
2009.
No. 3/No.13, Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon
2008.
Sans Image, VPF Gallery, Lisbon
Sonambulism, Poste-Ite Room, Pedro Oliveira, Porto
2007.
Assorted Paintings, curated by Miguel Amado and Filipa Oliveira, Artecontempo, Lisbon
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011.
Yin Yang Music curated by Amy Granat, Non-Objectif Sud (NOS), Tulette, France
Llama 2 curated by Ana Cardoso, Nuno Centeno, Porto
Agora Não, Not Yet curated by Filipa Ramos & António Contador, The Barber Shop, Lisbon
Expanded Painting International curated by Nicola Trezzi, Prague Biennial 5, Prague
Tax Day News & Smoke curated by Roger Van Voorhes, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
Dear Thick And Thin curated by Arfus Greenwood, ME Contemporary, Copenhagen
Clairvoyance with Boris Achour, curated by Paul Branca, Soloway, Brooklyn
2010.
Llama curated by Lisa Oppenheim, Conduits, Milan
The Miami Set with Amy granat and Flora Wiegmann, by invitation of Liutauras Psibilskis, NADA Art Fair 2010, Miami Beach
Portugal Arte EDP 2010, International Contemporary Art Biennale, Portugal Pavilion, Lisbon
Acts Are for Actors curated by Ana Cardoso, Southfirst Gallery, New York
Exhibition #3 curated by João Simões, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
Alpha & curated by Candice Madey, On Stellar Rays, New York
2009.
Besides, With, Against and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture, curated by Debra Singer, The Kitchen, New York
Miguel Amado Presents curated by Miguel Amado, ISCP – International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York
Tactical Support: Curator’s Choice curated by Anthony Huberman, Tracy Williams Ltd., New York
Strip/Stripe curated by Test, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
Territorial Pissings, Emmerico Nunes Cultural Center, Sines, Portugal
Lá Fora – Portuguese Artists Abroad, Electricity Museum and the Presidential Museum of Portugal, Lisbon
2008.
Across Across Across with Jacob Kassay, in Joao Simoes: Nov 5 - 26, 2008, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
E-flux Video Rental, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
Bendover/Hangover: An Evening with Cinema Zero, organized by Amy Granat, White Flag Projects, St Louis, Missouri
2007.
The Holiday Shopping Show – Limited edition artist multiples, curated by Robin Khan, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
Fidelidade Mundial Young Painters Prize, 9th Edition, Culturgest, Lisbon
Lisboa – Luanda – Maputo, Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon
GRANTS and AWARDS
2010. INOV-ART Grant, Direcção Geral das Artes, Ministry of Culture, Portugal
2007. Amadeo Souza-Cardoso Painting Prize, 6th Edition: Taminvest Prize
2004-2006. Study Grant, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Luso-American Foundation, for MFA Degree Program - Hunter College, CUNY
2001. Erasmus Grant, HdK, Berlin
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Critic's Picks: Llama, Artforum.com, by Marco Tagliaferro, Feb 2011
Metafisica? Talvez by Oscar Faria, in Ipsilon, Publico, July 23, 2010
Besides, With, Against and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture reviewed by Suzanne Hudson, Artforum International, February 2010
Hints of Something Human, ArtSlant, by Michelle Levy, Jan 2010
Critic's Picks: Ana Cardoso, Artforum.com, by Miguel Amado, Aug 2009
Ana Cardoso, No. 3 / No. 13, by Celso Martins, Expresso, Actual, Aug 1, 2009
Top 10 by Stefan Tcherepnin, Artforum, March 2009
Hippy Holiday, Flash Art online, Nicola Trezzi, Jan 2009
PLMJ Collection Catalogue, edited by Miguel Amado, PLMJ Foundation, 2009
LÁ FORA, Exhibition Catalogue, edited by Joao Pinharanda, EDP Foundation and the Presidential Museum of Portugal, 2009
NY Arts Magazine, Ana Teixeira Pinto in Conversation with Ana Cardoso in Lisbon Seen, June 2008
PLAY BLUE, 2010, ACRYLIC ON SEWN PURPLE COTTON AND BLACK WOOL, 50X35 IN / 125X90 CM
PLAY GOLD, 2010, ACRYLIC ON SEWN PURPLE COTTON AND BLACK WOOL, 50X35 IN / 125X90 CM
MONOCHROME (RED IN A SERIES OF 3 COLORS), 2010, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 51X47 IN / 130X120 CM
MONOLOGIC (SERIES OF 8 MONOCHROMES), 2010, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, EACH PAINTING: 79 X 39 IN/ 200X100 CM
SURPRISE SURPRISE (FLAGS 4 & 5), 2009, ACRYLIC ON SEWN COTTON, LINEN AND CASHMERE, EACH PAINTING: 75 X 39 IN/ 190X100 CM
SURPRISE SURPRISE (FLAGS 1), 2009, ACRYLIC ON SEWN COTTON, LINEN AND SILK, 61X29 IN / 155X74CM
SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE, 2009, ACRYLIC ON SEWN LINEN AND NYLON, 76X66 IN / 193X168 CM
SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE 5, 2010, ACRYLIC ON SEWN LINEN AND WOOL, 49X43 IN / 125X110 CM
MEDITATION (DIAMOND), 2009, ACRYLIC ON SEWN COTTON AND FELT, 49X52 IN / 124X132 CM
AFTER (HIGH MODERNISTS WAX WINGS), 2009, ACRYLIC ON SEWN COTTON AND LINEN, 59X59 IN / 150X150 CM
UNTITLED (AFTER INTERIOR WITH A YOUNG GIRL, MATISSE), 2009, ACRYLIC ON SEWN LINEN AND NYLON, 80X76 IN / 203X193 CM
EACH HAS FOUND AN OTHER TO ENDORSE HIS OWN FALSE NOTION OF HIMSELF AND TO GIVE THIS AP- PEARANCE A SEMBLANCE OF REALITY, 2011, ACRYLIC ON SEWN NYLON AND LINEN, 66X54 IN / 168X137 CM
T1, 2010, ACRYLIC ON SEWN COTTON AND WOOL, 49X43 IN / 125X110 CM
TAPED, 2009, ACRYLIC ON GREEN LINEN, 52X50 IN / 132X127 CM
5 MONOCHROMES (SCREEN), 2009, ACRYLIC ON UNPRIMED LINEN CANVAS, 76X176 IN / 193X447 CM
UNTITLED (BLUE GREEN), 2010, ACRYLIC ON SEWEN PATTERNED LINENS, 61X29 IN / 155X74CM
UNTITLED (AFTER PAINTERLY ARCHITECTONIC, POPOVA), 2009, ACRYLIC ON BLACK CANVAS, 43X49 IN / 110X125 CM
WORK IN PROGRESS, UNTITLED (MODULES), 2011, ACRYLIC ON SEWN FABRICS, VARIABLE DIMENSIONS, EACH PAINTING: 43X43 IN / 110X110 CM
LE DESTIN 2 (WHITE ORANGE), 2011, ACRYLIC ON SEWN PAINTED FABRICS, VARIABLE DIMENSIONS, EACH PAINTING: 16X16 IN / 40X40 CM
LE DESTIN 1 (BLACK WHITE), 2011, ACRYLIC ON SEWN PAINTED FABRICS, VARIABLE DIMENSIONS, EACH PAINTING: 16X16 IN / 40X40 CM