Guillaume Bresson and Ana Prata “The Visible World is Merely an Isolated Case”

Cuchifritos

This event has ended.

Curated by Jodi Waynberg, in association with Residency Unlimited (RU)

“Formerly we used to represent things visible on earth, things we either liked to look at or would have liked to see. Today we reveal the reality that is behind visible things, thus expressing the belief that the visible world is merely an isolated case in relation to the universe and that there are many more other, latent realities. Things appear to assume a broader and more diversified meaning, often seemingly contradicting the rational experience of yesterday…” – Paul Klee, Creative Confession (1920)

Cuchifritos Gallery and Residency Unlimited (RU) are pleased to announce their sixth-annual collaboration, The Visible World is Merely an Isolated Case, featuring the recent paintings of Guillaume Bresson and Ana Prata.

With two distinct approaches to contemporary painting, Bresson and Prata mute stylistic expectations in the service of a visual language that has no spoken form; a collection of simplified narratives, signs and symbols that communicate from the silences between words or thoughts.

For this exhibition, Bresson and Prata employ thoughtfully unfinished works and abstraction to turn one’s focus away from skill and technique—mastery yielding to process. Bresson’s revelation of detailed sketch work and underpainting bears a similar function to Prata’s layered abstraction, each providing insight into the gestures and processes of creating the work. While the pairing of their techniques represents stylistic extremes–Bresson’s classical roots in Renaissance and Baroque painting and Prata’s borrowing of multiple modern styles—together they build a language around representations of movement and stillness, reality and incongruity, tragedy and humor.