Fernanda Gomes Fernanda Gomes

The exhibition Fernanda Gomes, a large retrospective of the artist from Rio de Janeiro, bring together fifty works from the 1980’s up until the present day. Curated by museum curator José Augusto Ribeiro, the show is presented in the form of a large installation, composed of fragments, a recurring format in Gomes’ practice, dispersed throughout seven temporary galleries on the first floor of the Pinacoteca, demanding that the viewer play an active role in their reading of the work. The exhibition at the Pinacoteca, which is sponsored by Itaú, was conceived two years after the institution invited the artist to exhibit. Throughout this period, Gomes developed a plan to occupy the spaces, which included both fixed decisions and opportunities for improvisation, planning exhibition-based solutions specific to each environment. “From there, a demanding, meticulous process is manifested, that goes beyond a meeting of works”, explains the curator.

The final result comes after a three-week installation period, during which the artist put herself into constant activity in the seven exhibiting rooms, installing, in this way, a kind of temporary studio, not open to the public, a process commonly adopted by the artist. The set of works presented here includes more well-known works – like spheres of cloves and lines, a length of smoked and juxtaposed cigarette papers, ink and paper paintings, and some of her kinetic sculptures – and previously unseen works, conceived in loco.