Mônica Nador (Ribeirão Preto SP 1955)
Mônica Nador is a painter, designer and record label. He graduated in 1983 at the Faculty of Plastic Arts of Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP), in São Paulo. Two years later, he attended the Planographic Engraving Course with Regina Silveira (1939) at the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo (ECA/USP). He held his first solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC/USP) in 1983. In 1994, he received a scholarship from the Mid-America Alliance and traveled to the United States.
Back to Brazil, In 1999, she was awarded the Vitae Arts Bag in the field of Visual Arts, with the Project Paredes Paintings. That same year, he developed, in partnership with the residents of Vila Rhodia, in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, the Paredes Pintadas project, which involved the creation of drawings in acetate masks, painted in the neighborhood's houses. The following year, he obtained a master's degree from ECA/USP, with the dissertation Paredes Paintings, under the guidance of Regina Silveira. Large screens, in which they have stripes that juxtapose each other over the field of the screen, constantly using recessed tones. The observer notices small slivers of light in the dark weave of the paints, coming from the white of the fabric, which the artist sometimes shows. Thus, it explores not only the relationships between color areas, but also a game of relationships between figure and background. From the middle of that decade onwards, its palette expands and becomes clear. The artist starts to couple, to her canvases, other canvases (lighter, with more frayed stripes), creating illusory spaces and discussing procedures and possibilities of painting. Nador starts to work with color as space, on canvases that present, in addition to free brush strokes, areas intensely decorated with arabesques, as in the series Para Orar (1989). In the works of that time, he begins to evoke a mystical meaning for art. Already in Mergulhe (1991) and other works from the 1990s, he uses the word as a suggestion of the way by which the observer achieves the enjoyment of the work of art. of traditional art and turns to the production of great murals, in needy communities, where he starts to reside. It develops paintings on facades of residences, working together with its residents, based on decorative motifs. The artist obtains great motivation from the population, starting from the transformation of the reality of the place, and exploring the transforming potential of art, as in the Paredes Pinturas project, carried out in São José dos Campos, São Paulo.
Critiques
"(...) of Monica, in minimalist, rectangular, trapezoidal, trapezoids, etc. formats, on which a close pictorial plot of intense tones, the dominant black, is elaborated obsessively with a controlled and regular calligraphy. It offers, but rather asks the viewer to enter into tune for their awareness, including optical, for their perception. And, in this approach of the observer, an unraveling of spaces, through cracks of light, in chromatic delicacies in the fraying of the plot pictorial, it constitutes discoveries of purely visual directed delight".
Aracy Amaral
six artists. São Paulo: MAC/USP, 1985.
"(...) On one side, there are the paintings and drawings resulting from a presumably expressive gesture, converted, however, into a monotonous and almost mechanical operation (...) There are also canvases that resort to representation from a "cold" position, as a quote, from the inescapable two-dimensionality of painting, in short. 80, even standing in an extremely singular position, if one takes into account the dominant neo-expressionist of much of the painting in this decade. (...) The most immediate interest in this work of the MAC collection lies in the format of the canvas, which seems to impose a greater fascination on the artist as the that as a color coating surface. Here the thick weave in black insistently replaced is what reinforces and identifies the investigation of the formats. It is perhaps an expansion of the pictorial surface towards an architecture of the space in which the aesthetic object inevitably becomes inscribes, a procedure that leads the observer to hesitate between the ideal limits of the 'frame' and the integral capture of all the relationships that are immediately established in space and that impose a new scale".
Marco Antonio Tabet/Sônia Salzstein Goldberg
AMARAL, Aracy A. (Org.). Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo: profile of a collection. São Paulo: Techint Engenharia: Ex Libris, 1988.
Individual exhibitions
1983 - São Paulo SP - Drawings, at MAC/USP
1987 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1988 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1990 - São Paulo SP - Art Engaged, at Casa Triângulo Gallery
1994 - Dekalb (United States) - Individual, School's of Art Gallery, Northern Illinois University (in collaboration with James LAX)
1994 - Philadelphia (United States) - Individual, at the Nexus Foundation for Today's Art (in Collaboration with James Lax)
1994 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at Galeria Luisa Strina
1995 - Brasília DF - Individual, at Casa Thomas Jefferson (in collaboration with James Lax)
1995 - Curitiba PR - individual, at the Cultural Foundation of Curitiba (in collaboration with James LAX)
1995 - São Paulo SP - Individual, at the CCSP (in collaboration with James LAX)
1996 - São Paulo SP - Wall for Nelson Leirner, in the MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Observations on space and time, at UNICSUL
Collective exhibitions
1983 - São Paulo SP - 17th International Biennial of São Paulo, Biennial Foundation
1983 - São Paulo SP - Outdoor Blink, in the Arte na Rua 1 project, organized by MAC/USP
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Como Vai Você, Geração 80?, at EAV/Parque Lage
1985 - Belo Horizonte MG - Brasil Drawing, in the Paço das Artes
1985 - Campinas SP - Brazil Drawing, at MACC
1985 - Porto Alegre RS - Brasil Drawing, at Margs
1985 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Drawing, at Itaugaleria
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Salon of Plastic Arts, at MAM/RJ
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brasil Desenho, at Funarte
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Calligraphy and Scriptures, at Funarte
1985 - São Paulo SP - 3rd São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at the Bienal Foundation
1985 - São Paulo SP - Collective MAC/USP
1985 - São Paulo SP - And the drawing? and Contemporary Graphics, at Galeria Humberto
1986 - Cáli (Colombia) - 5th American Biennial of Graphic Arts, at the Museum of Modern Art of La Tertúlia
1986 - Fortaleza CE - Imagine: the planet welcomes the Comet, in Art Gallery
1986 - São Paulo SP - 4th São Paulo Contemporary Art Salon, at the Biennial Foundation
1986 - São Paulo SP - Collective, at MAC/USP
1988 - Berlin (Germany) - Berlin/São Paulo Workshop, at Kunsthalle Berlin
1988 - São Paulo SP - Action at MAM, at MAM/SP
1988 - São Paulo SP - Private collection by Eduardo Brandão, at Casa Triângulo Gallery
1988 - São Paulo SP - MAC 25 years: Acquisitions and recent donations, at MAC/USP
1988 - São Paulo SP - Workshop Berlin/São Paulo, at MASP
1989 - Porto Alegre RS - ART Hybrid, at the BFB Cultural Space
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Arte Hybrida, at the National Art Foundation. Arts Center
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1989 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Art São Paulo - Recent Perspectives, at CCSP
1989 - São Paulo SP - Hybrid Art, at MAM/SP
1989 - São Paulo SP - The Little Infinity and the Great Circumscribed, at Arco Contemporânea Galeria Bruno Musatti
1990 - Brasília DF - Brasília Award for Plastic Arts, in the MAB/DF
1990 - São Paulo SP - 21st Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1991 - São Paulo SP - 21st São Paulo International Biennial, at the Bienal Foundation
1991 - São Paulo SP - BR/80 Painting Brazil 80's Decade, at Itaugaleria
1991 - São Paulo SP - Visual Arts Exhibition Program, at CCSP
1992 - Poços de Caldas MG - Modern Art Brazilian: Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo, at the Casa da Cultura
1992 - São Paulo SP - Collective, at MAC/USP
1992 - São Paulo SP - Annual Fine Arts Exhibition Program 91, at the Bienal
1992 - São Paulo SP - A look at the figurative, in the Casa Triângulo gallery
1993 - Washington (United States) - Brazil images of the 80th & 90th, at the Art Museum of the Americas
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil: images from the 80s and 90s, at MAM/RJ
1994 - San Juan (Porto Rico) - small Latin American format 94, at Galeria Luigi
1994 - São Paulo SP - Brazil: images from the 80s and 90s, at Casa das Rosas
1994 - São Paulo SP - Marines, at the Nara Roesler Gallery
1995 - Curitiba PR - Engravings in collaboration with James Lox, at the Engraving Museum
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The 80s: The Diversity Stage, at MAM/RJ
1995 - São Paulo SP - 1st United Artists, At Casa das Rosas
1995 - São Paulo SP - 80s: The Diversity Stage, at the SESI Art Gallery
1995 - São Paulo SP - Annual Fine Arts Exhibition Program, at CCSP 
1995 - Uberlândia MG - Art in the City, at the Federal University of Uberlândia
1996 - São Paulo SP - 15 Brazilian artists, at MAM/SP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary Brazilian art: recent donations/96, no MAM/SP
1997 - São Paulo SP - Ao Cubo, at Paço das Artes
1997 - São Paulo SP - Computer Support Art, at Casa das Rosas
1997 - São Paulo SP - Brito Cimino Contemporary Art: Show Inaugural, at the Brito Cimino Gallery
1997 - São Paulo SP - Catalog: Represented artists and collections
1998 - São Paulo SP - The modern and the contemporary in Brazilian art: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection - MAM/RJ MASP
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, at Banco Safra
1999 - São Paulo SP - 26th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
2000 - Belo Horizonte MG - investigations. Are they or are they not engravings?, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - Brasília DF - Investigations. Are they or are they not engravings?, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
2000 - Curitiba PR - 12th Exhibition of Engraving in Curitiba. Body marks, folds of the soul
2000 - Fortaleza CE - 26th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at the Dragão do Mar Center of Art and Culture
2000 - Havana (Cuba) - 7th Bienal de Havana, downtown Contemporary Arte Wifredo Lam
2000 - Niterói RJ - 26th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAC/Niterói
2000 - São Paulo SP - Dialogue: Contemporary Art Brazil/Ecuador, Latin America Memorial. Galeria Marta Traba
2001 - São Paulo SP - 27th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
2001 - Washington (United States) - Virgin Territory: Women, Gender, and History in Contemporary Brazilian Art, at The National Museum of Women in the Arts
2002 - Londrina PR - Are they or are they not engravings?, at the Museum of Art in Londrina
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 27th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/RJ
2002 - Salvador BA - 27th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/BA
2002 - São Paulo SP - The line as a structure of the form, in the MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - 2080, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - My friends, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Occupation Prestes Maia, in Av. Prestes Maia, 853
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Where Are You, Geração 80?, at CCBB
Source: Itaú Cultural
