CRISTINA LAMAS – em casa #2 (at home #2)
We have the pleasure to exhibit em casa #2 (at home # 2) by Cristina Lamas.
There is a sense of comfort that prevails in Cristina Lama’s drawings, not because they inspire quietness in their observation (although it does exist in absolute terms), but because they are bound to be entertained by our senses. “At home” [“em casa”] is thus made to play with a spectator – one that observes and enters the drawing’s space to find his own points of comfort or conflict. In other words, a pure act of observation of the drawing’s prevailing tones and conducting lines, where the spectator finds a place that comes together with his own senses and recognizes the overwhelming experience of imagining himself in it.
Cristina Lamas’ art invites us to explore the primary function of our gaze, not only because of its silhouettes but also by forms that linger in time such as those we keep in our own memory – like stories or fables that call for a theatre of senses. Its own life persists by favoring traces of strong lines of an almost kinetic ambition, shedding light on an imaginary space – a place where our present (our house) finds an inspiration that comes from the Far East. Like moments of mutual exploration that arise from a certain tension between ways of seeing and storytelling.
That same theatre of senses also endures by the transversal function of our gaze, which is here exposed to a chromatic scale that determines the place where our perception is formed, thus provoking photographic instants. It is a game made of limits and possibilities that does not bind itself inside to its own paths or even the poetry that comes through it. On the other and, it creates circuits, directions or trips that look upon an order of forms not as an end but as a study on the freedom to see and to be seen within the time of our perception, sensibly and elegantly. These are real and imaginary forms that live through the simplicity and delicacy of every detail and colour of Cristina Lamas’ art, like the house to which we dispose our intimacy. Let us then cross these paths that welcome and enrich our own stories and our sense.
Francisco Valente
Press Release
At home #2
Galeria 111 – Lisboa and Arte Institute presents CRISTINA LAMAS’ (1968) individual exhibition from January 14th to February 25th, 2012
A series of 23 drawings, 1 video and 2 photographs, reflect an obstinate investigation about drawing, which appears to be a constant in the artist’s work. Made throughout 2011, these works come once again to strengthen her strong connection to drawing.
The matrices drawn here seem to remember us of a visible barrier, mediating a private space, which function we could spontaneously decipher: we are at home, driven by its own rhythms and immersed in the intimacy of the experience. This is a relationship of respect, all the more magnified by the stimulus of its activity.
The artist’s imagination is fed by innumerable sources, such as Japanese prints, haikus and other types of poetry, patterns, and images from the Internet, movies, or travels. This long-drawn-out artisan’s work, in which the drawings are conceived in an obsessive way, sequentially, one after another, translates the systematic rigor of the doing and of its inherent reflection about the passing of time. A time without deadlines, without beginning or end, of which unity we participate.
www.cristinalamas.com
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www.111.pt
Biography
CRISTINA LAMAS (1968)
Lives and works in Lisbon.
She graduated in fine arts at Ar.Co – Center for Art and Visual Communication, Lisbon, where she attended drawing studies and the advanced project course (1998-1999).
First solo show took place in 2001 at Lisboa20 contemporary art (Assírio & Alvim), Lisbon.
Followed by 2002 – ”Como Sentir” Ratton gallery, Lisbon and Marília Razuk gallery, Sao Paulo; 2004 – “Desenho” Lisboa20 contemporary Art; 2005 – “Desenho” Lisboa20 contemporary Art; 2007 – “Bahia c/ H” at N. Sra do Rosário church, Salvador, Brazil; 2008 – Lisboa20 Contemporary Art, 2010 – “UMA” at Giefarte.
Group show selection: Drawing Exhibition, Mitra, Lisbon (2000); Sala do Veado, Lisbon (2000); “10 years of Marília Razuk gallery”, Sao Paulo (2002); Drawing prize Vieira da Silva Foundation, Lisbon (2002); Auction Ar.Co, Lisbon (2003); Lisboa20 Contemporary Art group show, Lisbon (2004), Municipal Museum /Black pavilion (2006); Ar.Co, Bazaar at Belem Cultural Center (2006); “Noticias do Agora”, Aliança Francesa, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil (2007); “Á volta do papel” at Manuel de Brito Cultural Art Center, Lisbon (2008), “Salon d’Été”, João Esteves de Oliveira (2008), “1 Century, 10 Pencils, 100 Drawings”: Viarco Express, Presidency of the Republic Museum.
Public and private collections where she is represented: Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Lisbon, Paintings in Hospitals, London, United Kingdom; PT Foundation, Lisbon; PLMJ Foundation, Lisbon, Banco Espírito Santo, Madrid, Spain. Her work has been present in several art fairs. She got grants from Orient Foundation in 2000 and 2003 and from Luso American Foundation in 2001.