MON holds new exhibition by Alex Flemming
The unprecedented exhibition "Alex Flemming 70 Years", the newest project of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), will open on August 29 in Room 3. Curated by Tereza de Arruda, the exhibition brings together more than 80 works, some of them large, by this internationally recognized Brazilian artist who has lived between Germany and Brazil for decades.
"Alex Flemming is undoubtedly one of the greatest Brazilian artists of his generation and throughout his career he has had important connections and presences in Paraná. For us, it's an honor to present an exhibition celebrating his 70th birthday here at Oscar Niemeyer Museum," says Luciana Casagrande Pereira, Paraná's Secretary of State for Culture.
MON's CEO, Juliana Vosnika, says that "the Alex Flemming commemorative exhibition brings our public into direct contact with the best of contemporary production".
She comments that Alex Flemming, an artist who is always irreverent and observant, brings a contemporary portrait to his works that goes beyond the simple representation of what he sees. ''He translates his sharp and attentive vision when talking about a chaotic world full of trends. He addresses various social issues with the subtlety that only art allows," says Juliana.
The exhibition features works from 1982 to 2023. The works, impregnated with symbols and messages, invite the viewer to go beyond common sense. They are layers that gain their own meaning from the singular gaze of each visitor.
Through innovative techniques and conceptual approaches, such as those present in Alex Flemming's universe, the boundaries of the portrait and the portrayed are expanded, challenging the viewers to reconsider their perceptions of the artist, themselves and others.
The exhibition brings together a variety of techniques, such as photography on glass, oil on canvas, enamel on wood, acrylic on fabric and painting on porcelain, etc.
The theme "Portrait" was intentionally selected for this commemorative exhibition because human representation is the fundamental and seminal axis of Alex Flemming's plastic research. According to the curators, the exhibition presents the recurrence of the portrait in his vast production.
"Historically, over the centuries, the genre of the portrait has evolved from a faithful representation of physical appearance to an in-depth exploration of the identity and subjectivity of the subject," explains Tereza de Arruda.
"Contemporary portraiture, as can be seen in this exhibition, often explores identity in complex ways, addressing issues of gender, race, sexuality, social class and culture.
According to the curator, "it has ceased to be a simple representation of external appearance and has become a profound investigation into the complexities of human identity - a mirror of society - reflecting its tensions, transformations and diversities".
The artist
Alex Flemming was born in 1954 in São Paulo. He lives and works in São Paulo and Berlin. He studied Cinema at FAAP and Architecture at USP, and is self-taught in the visual arts. He made several short films in Super-8 and participated in festivals. From the late 1970s onwards, he devoted himself exclusively to the visual arts. He always creates his work in series, the first of which denounces the violence of torture in the cellars of the Brazilian military dictatorship (series ''Natureza Morta", 1978). His art is basically political and over the years he has tackled themes such as war ("Body Builders" series, 2000), September 11 ("Flying Carpets" series, 2003) or terrorism ("Apocalypse" series, 2015). Another ever-present theme is the human body, "the human being as the center of the universe", as the artist himself says, which is the focus of the exhibition "Alex Flemming 70 Years".
Curatorship
Tereza de Arruda has a master's degree in Art History from the Free University of Berlin and has been following Alex Flemming's work since 1991, exhibiting his works in various shows in Brazil and abroad. Among them, the solo exhibition "Flying Carpets", held in 2005 at the Chicago Cultural Center; "Alex Flemming: Uniplanetary System", in 2008, at St. Paul's. Johannes Kirche, in Berlin and at the MAM - Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro; "Alex Flemming: Galileo Galilei", in 2011, at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile, as well as the group show "Brasilidade Pós-Modernismo", held from 2021-2022, on the CCBB circuit in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília and Belo Horizonte.
