Rafael Carneiro

In the exhibition space Galeria II, Rafael Carneiro, one of the main representatives of the new generations of painters active in São Paulo, presents five large-format paintings that resort to a dense aesthetics to depict inanimate industrial environments in which the absence of characters and actions invites the viewer to reflect on the origin and destiny of the images portrayed.

With an impressive aesthetic vigor resulting from his mastery of the technique of oil painting, the artist appropriates worn-out images, originally captured by security cameras, to deconstruct and empty the elements that could be part of the real composition, in search of a meaning that points in another direction. The artist’s work is articulated in the contrast between the quality of the scene recorded and the pictorial quality that one expects from a painting.

Unlike in the series of paintings he made previously, in washed tones of a gray, beige and blue palette, the artist has opted for denser colors that portray the same universe now in a situation of shadow. These dim environments make the images more enigmatic and instigating.

The choice of an aerial point of view that allowed the spectator, aided by some device (a camera, a ladder...), to occupy other places in the space portrayed, has also given way to a new perspective, which brings the observer closer to the environment.

A 2006 graduate of the School of Communications and Arts of the Universidade de São Paulo, Rafael Carneiro (São Paulo, 1985) has previously participated in solo shows at the Centro Cultural São Paulo and Centro Universitário MariAntônia. He has also presented his work at group shows held by Paço das Artes (2010), Itaú Cultural (2009), Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Paraná, and other venues. The artist lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.