Altkirch | ArtRegion: Basel - Oberrhein

CRAC Alsace

Jonathas de Andrade: Eye – Spark

16. Juni – 18. September 2022

Jonathas de Andrade’s poignant practice takes advantage of the visual and narrative possibilities of media such as installation, photography, film and sculpture and is grounded in research processes that have a profound collaborative nature. His ongoing reflection has been speculating on the shortcomings of late modernity’s utopias, ideals and world visions, especially in the Latin American context. The resulting works tend to conjure feelings and ideas that oscillate between nostalgia, eroticism and historical and political critique in order to subjectively address themes such as labour and identity, almost always through the representation of the male body.
Even though the presence of the male body has taken center stage in de Andrade’s practice throughout the years, it has never been perceived as a research or a topic in and of itself, but rather as a tool to inquire into other issues. This exhibition attempts to correct that by focusing on the role men, their bodies, in all their erotic dimension, and their secret meeting spots have had in the construction of a very nuanced, at times conflicting and contradictory, homoerotic gaze.
This is Jonathas de Andrade’s first solo institutional show in France, and his first survey show in Europe. It presents a selection of works which are intended to be both thematic and monographic, spanning the entirety of his career, allowing the audience to establish contact and become familiar with his artistic practice. The show is co-curated by João Mourão and Luís Silva and is organized in collaboration with Lisbon’s MAAT where it will travel to in January 2023.
Jonathas de Andrade was born in 1982 in Maceió and lives and works in Recife, in Northeastern Brazil. He has presented solo shows in institutions such as The Power Plant (Toronto, Canada), The New Museum (New York, USA), or MASP (Sao Paulo, Brazil). He has participated in numerous biennials and group exhibitions at renowned institutions throughout the world. His most recent project Pé na Jaca is the Brazillian Pavilion in the 2022 edition of the Venice Biennale.