Flávia Ribeiro (São Paulo SP 1954)
Painter, printmaker and sculptor.
From 1970 to 1974, Flávia Monteiro Ribeiro studied at Escola Brasil: in São Paulo. She took a photography course with Claudia Andujar (1931) and George Leary Love (1937 - 1995) and an etching course with Babinski (1931). From 1972 to 1974, she studied at Enfoco Escola de Fotografia under Cristiano Mascaro (1944) and Maureen Bisilliat (1931). In the following years, she worked as an assistant to Dudi Maia Rosa (1946) and studied printmaking and drawing with him. In 1976, she received an acquisition prize at the 6th Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea. She furthered her printmaking studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1978 to 1980. In the 1980s, she began working with encaustic (pigments mixed with wax) and asphalt on canvas. During this period, she worked with Daniela Thomas (1959) on sets and costumes for Gerald Thomas's (1954) plays Carmem com Filtro, Eletra com Creta and O Navio Fantasma [The Flying Dutchman]. In 1989, she held a solo exhibition in the Projeto Macunaíma at Funarte in Rio de Janeiro. She was an artist in residence at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 1991-1992. She has also devoted herself to metal sculpture, working initially with tin and brass. In 2002, she showed a series of bronze sculptures for the first time at Galeria André Millan in São Paulo.
Critical Commentary
In her early production, Flávia Ribeiro made works in encaustic (pigments mixed with wax) and asphalt on canvas, presenting a simple geometry with elements such as the cross, the square or the lozenge. For the art historian Agnaldo Farias, these pieces, through their form, material and rough finish, suggest an ancestral character marked by the passage of time.
As the art historian Tadeu Chiarelli notes, Flávia Ribeiro subverts traditional means of artistic production, irreverently using certain printmaking procedures to make works whose final form oscillates between the established concepts of printmaking, painting and the three-dimensional field. With typical printmaker's tools, the artist works on a block of wax onto which she pours liquid latex, which is then peeled off. According to Chiarelli, to be understood the resulting pieces call on a repertoire of painting codes from the viewer, but because they hang close to the wall they suggest other ways of being perceived, also recalling old quilts and sheets drying on household clotheslines. For the author, the difficulty of placing the works within a restricted field makes Flávia Ribeiro one of the most compelling contemporary artists.
More recently, the artist began making metal sculptures. For Agnaldo Farias, despite the abrupt change of material, her poetics persists in the organic forms generated by irregular surfaces, which retain traces of the artist's handling of the molds.
Critiques
"(...) Flávia Ribeiro invites the viewer to a renewed contemplation of serial production. Her 'discs of matter' are beautiful and accomplished and reveal a rare seriousness (...)"
Lisette Lagnado
LAGNADO, Lisette. 6º Salão Paulista de Arte Contemporânea. Galeria: revista de arte, São Paulo: Area Editorial, n. 10, p. 54-55, 1988.
Solo Exhibitions
1988 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Millan
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Projeto Macunaíma [Macunaíma Project], at Funarte
1991 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Millan
1993 - São Paulo SP - Reliquiae Rerum, at Capela do Morumbi
1994 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Millan
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Frágeis [Fragile], at Espaço Cultural Sérgio Porto
1996 - São Paulo SP - Floribus Explere, at Espaço OX
1997 - Barueri SP - Corpos Associados [Associated Bodies], ATC Alphaville
1999 - São Paulo SP - Corpus Consociatus, at Galeria Millan
2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - Solo, at Galeria Celma Albuquerque
2002 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria André Millan
Group Exhibitions
1976 - São Paulo SP - 7th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at Paço das Artes - acquisition prize
1977 - Santos SP - 5th Santos Young Salon - acquisition prize
1978 - São Paulo SP - Gravuras e Aquarelas [Prints and Watercolors] group show, at Galeria Pindorama
1980 - London (England) - PPMC Print Show, at Graffiti Gallery
1981 - London (England) - Slade Print Show, at Greenwich Gallery
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1987 - São Paulo SP - 5th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at Pinacoteca do Estado - Salão Paulista Prize
1987 - São Paulo SP - The Fabric of Taste: Another Look at Everyday Life, at Fundação Bienal
1988 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th National Visual Arts Salon - acquisition prize
1988 - São Paulo SP - 6th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon
1988 - São Paulo SP - Group Show 1981/1987, at Galeria Arco
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Projeto Macunaíma [Macunaíma Project], at Funarte
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal - acquisition prize
1990 - Los Angeles (United States) - Brazil Projects' 90, at Municipal Art Gallery
1990 - São Paulo SP - 21st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1990 - São Paulo SP - Brazil Projects' 90, at Masp
1991 - São Paulo SP - BR/80: Brazilian Painting of the 1980s, at Itaugaleria
1992 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Millan: Inaugural Show, at Galeria Millan
1993 - São Paulo SP - 23rd Panorama of Current Art, at MAM/SP
1994 - Juiz de Fora MG - America, at Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora - Reitoria
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Book-Object: The Frontier of Voids, at CCBB
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Via Fax, at Museu do Telefone
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - BR-UK, at MAM/RJ
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século XX [20th Century Brazil Biennial], at Fundação Bienal
1994 - São Paulo SP - Mirrors and Shadows, at MAM/SP
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Mirrors and Shadows, at CCBB
1995 - Santos SP - 5th Santos National Biennial, at Centro Cultural Patrícia Galvão
1995 - São Paulo SP - 1st United Artists, at Casa das Rosas
1995 - São Paulo SP - Book-Object: The Frontier of Voids, at MAM/SP
1996 - São Paulo SP - 23rd São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1996 - São Paulo SP - 4th Studio Unesp Sesc Senai of Image Technologies, at Sesc Pompeia
1997 - São Paulo SP - Arte Cidade: The City and Its Stories
1998 - São Paulo SP - Elective Affinities I: The Collector's Eye, at Casa das Rosas
1998 - São Paulo SP - Theory of Values, at MAM/SP
1999 - Bergen (Norway) - Claming the Clouds, at Foundation 3,14
1999 - São Paulo SP - Arte Brasileira sobre Papel na Coleção do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo [Brazilian Art on Paper in the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo], at MAM/SP
1999 - São Paulo SP - United Artists: Journeys of Identities, at Casa das Rosas
2000 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Group show, at Museu de Arte
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brasil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition, at Fundação Bienal
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Spirit of Our Time, at MAM/RJ
2002 - São Paulo SP - México Imaginário [Imaginary Mexico], at Casa das Rosas
2002 - São Paulo SP - Ópera-Aberta, Celebração [Open Opera, Celebration], at Casa das Rosas
2002 - São Paulo SP - Territórios [Territories], at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2003 - São Paulo SP - Pele e Alma [Skin and Soul], at Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil
Source: Itaú Cultural
