Fernanda Gomes' (*1960, Rio de Janeiro) work exists between painting and sculpture, avoiding categorization and blurring the boundaries between object and space, light and shadow, composition and dispersion. If the essential geometries of Fernanda Gomes' installations formally recall an earlier generation of Brazilian art - the modulated space works and matchbox structures of Lygia Clark or of Helio Oiticica - they also embody the philosophy of 'truth to materials' exemplified in the Arte Povera movement. Through Gomes' choice of materials, be they found objects, pieces of wood or natural materials such as gold and water, she references the poetics of the immaterial and the relationship of form to a whole.
"To begin with space and light. Possibilities are multiple and unpredictable. Things are gradually constructed as sequential perspectives, one moment after another. Transferring to the exhibition space the recurring process of many years, each day lighter and more intense. The situation is the same and different. The more that is unknown, the better. Devouring without deciphering. Looking to see. thinking while making, simple, pure joy. All materials serve immateriality. It would be contradictory if it were not complementary. Thought seeks concrete vision in order to refuel itself. Imagination is based on the real, and creates realities. Everything transforms - such is the law. Life is absurd, why try to understand art? It is better to make, live, and love."
(Fernanda Gomes)
