Gravura Brasileira

Gravura Brasileira gallery is honored to invite German artist Florian Foerster to make a solo exhibition in its premises.  This exhibition will take place at Gravura Brasileira in Sao Paulo from January 12 – February 12, 2010.

The exhibition will present prints, drawings and paintings, which have been produced during, or after three extensive visits the artist did to Brazil since 1996. Since his first visit to Sao Paulo, at the age of 21, the city, his observations and experiences of Sao Paulo have stayed a source and passion for his work. The works are grouped around a number of reoccurring reference points such as the district of Bras, the old center and the Jardim da Luz. The drawings and sketchbooks produced during these stays are his minute material extract from Sao Paulo. The resulting studio paintings are the traces of the dialogue and confrontation with the artist’s experience in Sao Paulo. This works has never been shown in Brazil.

 Florian Foerster

 www.florianfoerster.com e www.blocosete.com.br/blog

Sao Paulo - Insides, Outsides and in between
Galeria Gravura Brasileira

 Sao Paulo - Insides, Outsides and in between   shows  paintings, prints and drawings based on observations and experiences during my visits to Sao Paulo beginning in the early 1990s. Nearly all the works in the exhibition start from observations made during walks through Bras, Jardim da Luz and the Centro. I translated my initial outdoor drawings and sketches into new works later in the studio. The exhibition presents an attempt to enter Sao Paulo, sometimes hesitantly, to respond to the realities I encountered and to connect them with my memories and imagination. Following are verbal sketches of my connection to Bras, Jardim da Luz.and the Centro.

Bras
Dense straight streets at daylight, low industrial buildings, the smell of garlic and wood, sounds of packing, cutting, and moving. A continuous  marketplace framed by the grey yellow river, the railway tracks, and the skyline of the Centro. A transition space, empty at  weekends and in the evenings, a place to work, strike a bargain with known and secret motives, and to leave. Memories of the great cities of northern England originally brought to life by immigrants following the old dream of betterment and financial gain. Utilitarian architecture framing commercial activities, a place of manual labour and trade, a beautiful harsh scruffiness with no interest in the fashionable, in design.

Jardim da Luz
Nearly a secret garden, too ancient, too remote to announce itself to me on my first visit. Overwhelming light near the gates, giving way to denseness further along. A small space for boundless diversion and despair, futile joys, and fragile, unassuming beauty. Breathing and letting go and breathing again, the outside world, nature, and people sucked in and spat out in dreams dissolved. Feeding desires of rest or intensity, of sadness or joy, for a moment before re-entering Bras, returning to realities. I look with eyes half shut. Closed on Mondays, among the saddest days in Sao Paulo. The dream sleeps.

Centro – Boca do Lixo
Still there. Criss crossing, rising and descending streets and conglomerates of buildings ,buildings open into passages into hallways into rooms. Dirt and violence laughing at attempts to smooth out the surface and hide physical greed, careless desperation, and beauty. A sense of futile alert. A place of pleasure, cruelties, fears, and surprise, a mockery to the well meaning and morals. As fertile as a Beaudelaire poem. A place of disguise, happy lies, and staged pleasures in an earthly theatre without rehearsal. Bodies attempting to temporarily hold your attention on the ramshackle decaying stages of  grand old cinemas, slowly disappearing. Still here: built up, cut, and built up again from scraps and materials on studio floors.

Observations 2010
During my walks through Sao Paulo in the weeks preceding this exhibition, I was struck by how much has changed in the city. Some of the locations and views on display here no longer exist, making this show not only representations of my personal experiences, but also a historical record of atmospheres gone. Thus, in some ways, these works become part of the vast archaeological layers of this city swallowed by change. Within me this  creates a certain melancholy and a curiosity about the new transformations.

Sao Paulo, December 2009
Florian Foerster


     
Solo Exhibitions
     
2009    Galerie SüdostEuropa, Maria Valeria Drawings, Berlin
2009    Bocas do Lixo, Das Labor, Berlin
2007    Nacht und Nebel, Neukoelln, Berlin
2006    “ Deceptions and Crossings “ Municipal Museum Sturovo, Slowakei.
2004    Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester
2004    “ The miraculous Mandarin “ Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin
    The exhibition formed part of the Berliner Philharmoniker Concert of Bela Bartoks-music, conducted by Pierre Boulez    
2000    Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester
1997    -Galerie Zunge, Berlin
1996    Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
1995    Liverpool School of Architecture
1994    Goethe Institute, Manchester
1993    Skelmersdale Arts Centre

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009    Here, there and everywhere, jointly with Lara Loutrel, Boston
2008    Nacht und Nebel, jointly with Lara Loutrel, Berlin
2007    Nacht und Nebel, jointly with Kate Price, Berlin
2006    Annual Exhibition, Schillerpalais, Berlin
2005    Newton Street Studio, Manchester,
2002    Newton Street Studio, Manchester,
2003    Manchester Academy , Prizewinner
1999    Manchester Academy , Prizewinner
1996    Manchester Academy
1995    Ainscough Gallery, Liverpool
1995       Manchester Academy , Prizewinner
1994    Hotbed Press in Liverpool and Manchester
1994    ‘ Licence to print’ Six young printmakers in England, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

Residencies
2006    June to October. Bridgeguard Residency in Sturovo, Slowakei/Ungarn , for additional information see  www.bridgeguard.org  
1992, 1997, 2005. Three four month long visits to Sao Paulo to paint and draw.

Workshops with the Berlin Philharmonikers Education Department

2007   Two week workshop to St. Saints Musik Karnival der Tiere with primary school children for a concert with the orchestra and the Labeque sisters.Concept and workshopleader
2006    Open Day - Workshop for 3 to 10 year old children to Ravels music, Mother Goose.   Concept and workshopleader
2004     The miraculous Mandarin  by Bela Bartok. Workshopleader for a one  week  workshop with secondary school children. 
2004    Le Jeux by Debussy. Workshopleader for a two week workshop with secondary school children. 

Since 1994 Florian Foerster’s work has been regularly shown in the group shows of the Tib Lane Gallery and the Philips Art Gallery in Manchester.