Julião Sarmento
Sean Kelly is pleased to announce that Julião Sarmento is the subject of a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The exhibition, which was organized by CAC Director and Chief Curator Raphaela Platow, explores the theme of literature and books in Sarmento’s oeuvre. Julião Sarmento will open to the public on September 24, 2011 and will be on view through January 22, 2012.
The exhibition at the CAC focuses on Sarmento’s use of the book both as a visual object and an intellectual device, addressing the artist’s unique investigation into the psychological connection that readers have to works of literature. The exhibition includes a series of large-scale, re-imagined book covers for novels that have significantly influenced Sarmento both personally and artistically. These works, amongst others, are shown in conjunction with Sarmento’s portraits of the actress Sasha Grey, star of Steven Soderbergh’s film The Girlfriend Experience, photographed in the act of reading.
Sarmento has exhibited extensively worldwide since 1979. He has been included in two Documentas and has represented Portugal in two Venice Biennales. His work is represented in public and private collections worldwide such as: The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Musée National d’Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland; the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. Sarmento has also been the subject of multiple publications.
Image: Julião Sarmento, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please, 2011