Marepe (Santo Antônio de Jesus BA 1970)
Marepe is a Brazilian contemporary artist known for his drawings and minimalist sculptures in wood and metal. His work alludes to his origins and to the culture and traditions of his native region. Marepe began the visual arts program at the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), in Salvador, in 1988. In 1990, he held his first solo exhibition at the Centro Cultural Cruz das Almas, in Cruz das Almas, Bahia. The following year, he began a teaching degree in drawing and visual arts at UFBA and, for his participation in the 1st Bienal do Recôncavo, held in São Félix, Bahia, he won a trip to Germany. In 1992, he began teaching at the Escola de Artes Plásticas of UFBA. In 1996, he exhibited at the 3rd Visual Arts Salon of the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAM/BA), where he received the acquisition prize. That same year, he took part in the exhibition Antarctica Artes com a Folha in São Paulo, and won a trip to Documenta in Kassel, Germany, together with the artists Rivane Neuenschwander and Cabelo. Since then, he has exhibited his works, which draw on Northeastern popular traditions, in many galleries and institutions in Brazil and abroad. In 2005, he exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris as part of the Year of Brazil in France.
Critical Commentary
At the beginning of his career, Marepe made concrete sculptures. In the 1990s, he began using everyday objects in his installations, such as beer cans, bundles of clothing, and cigarette or cardboard boxes. He recreates popular scenes from Northeastern Brazil, such as street vending, in Banca de Fichas e Cartões Telefônicos [Token and Phone Card Stall], 1996, or Barraca de Veneno [Poison Stall], 1998.
In Filtros [Filters], 1999, he presents several ceramic water filters resting on rustic wooden stools. The objects seem strange at first sight because their dimensions differ from those of the traditional items. Marepe explores the poetry produced by displacing objects from their everyday context. At the 25th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, in 2002, he exhibited a 3-ton wall brought from the Northeast bearing the painted inscription: "Comercial São Luís, tudo no mesmo lugar pelo menor preço" [Comercial São Luís, everything in one place at the lowest price], a reference to his father's workplace for many years.
In many works, Marepe's proposal includes audience participation, as in Palmeira Doce [Sweet Palm Tree], 2001, for which, with the help of a local maker, he produced 4,500 bags of cotton candy in different colors that were hung along the trunk of a palm tree in a square in his hometown and gathered by children on the feast day of Saints Cosmas and Damian. In another installation, he filled a room with colorful inflated balloons, inviting the audience to pop them. Marepe says he seeks to address questions related to collective memory, exploring their poetic meaning.
Solo Exhibitions
1990 - Cruz das Almas BA - Mirror in the Dark, at Centro Cultural Cruz das Almas
1994 - Salvador BA - Tem Pasta, Se Costa? não nega besta, tem bosta! você gosta? mas que resposta, seu costa., at Restaurante Cia. das Índias
1994 - Salvador BA - Right Under Your Nose, at UFBA
1995 - Salvador BA - Horse's Hoof, at Galeria Acbeu
2000 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Luisa Strina
2002 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Luisa Strina
2004 - São Paulo SP - Desemboladeira, at Pinacoteca do Estado
Group Exhibitions
1991 - São Félix BA - 1st Recôncavo Biennial, at Centro Cultural Dannemann
1993 - São Félix BA - 2nd Recôncavo Biennial, at Centro Cultural Dannemann
1994 - Salvador BA - 1st MAM-Bahia Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/BA
1995 - Salvador BA - 2nd MAM-Bahia Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/BA
1995 - São Félix BA - 3rd Recôncavo Biennial, at Centro Cultural Dannemann
1996 - Porto Alegre RS - Constructive Art, on the Ilha da Casa da Pólvora
1996 - Salvador BA - 3rd MAM-Bahia Salon, at MAM/BA
1996 - São Paulo SP - Antarctica Artes com a Folha, at Pavilhão Manoel da Nóbrega
1997 - Belo Horizonte MG - 25th Belo Horizonte National Art Salon
1997 - Berlin (Germany) - Die Anderen Modernen, at Haus der Kulturen der Welt
1997 - Curitiba PR - Contemporary Printmaking, at Museu Metropolitano de Arte de Curitiba
1997 - Salvador BA - Workshop 97: German and Brazilian Artists, at MAM/BA
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16th National Visual Arts Salon, at MAM/RJ
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - MAM Bahia Collection: Contemporary Art, at MAM/RJ
1998 - São Paulo SP - Beyond the Rainbow, at MAB/Faap
1999 - Americana SP - A Place from Anywhere, at MAC/Americana
1999 - Curitiba PR - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at Fundação Cultural de Curitiba. Solar do Barão
1999 - Porto Alegre RS - 2nd Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul, at Armazém do Cais do Porto (former DEPREC), Margs and Espaço Usina Gasômetro
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at Museu Histórico da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The 90s, at Paço Imperial
1999 - Salvador BA - Arte-Arte Salvador 450 Years, at MAM/BA
1999 - São Paulo SP - Everyday Life/Art. The Object in the 1990s, at Itaú Cultural
1999 - São Paulo SP - Northeasts, at Sesc Pompeia
2000 - Americana SP - BR 500, at MAC/Americana
2000 - Campinas SP - BR 500, at MACC
2000 - Lisbon (Portugal) - 20th Century: Art of Brazil, at Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
2000 - Pontevedra (Spain) - 26th Pontevedra Art Biennial, at Facultade de Ciencias Sociais
2000 - Pontevedra (Spain) - 26th Pontevedra Art Biennial, at Pazo da Cultura de Pontevedra
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilianities, at Centro Cultural Light
2000 - Salvador BA - The Quietness of the Earth: Everyday Life, Contemporary Art and Projeto Axé, at MAM/BA
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brasil + 500 Rediscovery Exhibition, at Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo SP - End of the Millennium: The 1990s at the MAM, at MAM/SP
2001 - New York (United States) - The Thread Unraveled: Contemporary Brazilian Art, at El Museo del Barrio
2001 - São Paulo SP - 27th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
2002 - Brasília DF - Artefoto, at CCBB
2002 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - The Thread Unraveled: Contemporary Brazilian Art, at Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires
2002 - Curitiba PR - Works from Faxinal das Artes, at MAC/PR
2002 - Liverpool (England) - Pot
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 27th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/RJ
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artefoto, at CCBB
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952-2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - Salvador BA - 27th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/BA
2002 - São Paulo SP - 25th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
2002 - São Paulo SP - Intimacy, at Paço das Artes
2002 - São Paulo SP - Paralela, at a warehouse at Avenida Matarazzo, 530
2002 - São Paulo SP - Pop Brazil: Popular Art and the Popular in Art, at CCBB
2002 - São Paulo SP - Pot, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2003 - Brasília DF - Artefoto, at CCBB
2003 - London (England) - Gambiarra: New Art from Brazil, at Gasworks Gallery
2003 - São Paulo SP - The New Geometry, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2003 - São Paulo SP - Collection 2003 / 2004, at Galeria Luisa Strina
2003 - São Paulo SP - Galeria Luisa Strina: Represented Artists, at Galeria Luisa Strina
2003 - São Paulo SP - Order and Vertigo, at CCBB
2003 - Venice (Italy) - 50th Venice Biennale, at the Arsenale and Giardini della Biennale
2004 - Madrid (Spain) - ARCO/2004, at Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - New Acquisitions 2003: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at MAM/RJ
Source: Itaú Cultural
