Valdir Cruz “Guarapuava”

Throckmorton Fine Art

poster for Valdir Cruz “Guarapuava”

This event has ended.

“Guarapuava” is Throckmorton Fine Art’s sixth solo exhibition of works by the documentary-photographer, Valdir Cruz, and one that is the culmination of a thirty-year project.

Spencer Throckmorton says, “Cruz’s exquisite photographic essay on ‘Guarapuava,’ the photographer’s hometown, bears out Tolstoy’s observation that to be universal one only needs to talk about his own village. With unremitting devotion, Cruz has chronicled the lives and lifestyles of this ephemeral and evocative place. The images are the result of his close investigation of its people and landscapes.”

Among highlights “Guarapuava” showcases a photograph entitled, “Gypsy Woman I.” It is not merely a portrait; it is a confrontation. As though her unkempt hair, her shirt of asymmetric wildflowers and her pose of apparent control were not enough, what grabs the viewer’s attention is her perturbing gaze.
In “Tropeada I” the photographer immortalizes an extinct way of life as gauchos and cattle recede into the horizon. The distinctive landscapes and magnificent waterfalls of the region complement this body of work.

Although Throckmorton Fine Art is known for its silver, platinum, and vintage prints, this exhibition is a collection of large-format pigment on paper. Over the course of twelve years, Cruz and his master printer, Leonard Bergson, have developed a proprietary printing process by which to create exquisite original artworks. The exceptional quality of these prints catapults them into a niche of their own.

“Hands” beautifully represents the absolute wide range of black and gray tones—from delicate charcoal shades to pitch darkness—resulting in a striking composition. It is also a visual and cultural commentary of a solitary gesture that models human complexity.

Cruz was born in Guarapuava, in the Southern State of Paraná, in 1954. Although Cruz has lived in the United States for more than thirty years, much of his work in photography has focused on the people and landscape of Brazil. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996 for Faces of the Rainforest, a project documenting the life of indigenous people in the Brazilian rainforest from 1995 to 2000. Cruz shares his time between his studios in New York City and São Paulo.

[Image: Valdir Cruz “Mulher Cigana I (Gypsy Woman I)” (ca. 1991)]

Media

Schedule

from September 18, 2014 to November 01, 2014

Opening Reception on 2014-09-18 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Valdir Cruz

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