“POSIÇÃO AMOROSA” (“AMOROUS POSITION”)

Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo, Brazil
26 de marzo de 2014 – 10 de mayo de 2014

Curator : Marcio Harum

The exhibition explores elements of marginality and subversion in the artistic production of Hudinilson Jr.

Galeria Jaqueline Martins presents an exhibition on the work produced by the artist Hudinilson Jr., who passed away in August 2013, when his work caught the attention of important national and international institutions. Curated by Marcio Harum, the show entitled “POSIÇÃO AMOROSA”, or “AMOROUS POSITION” (in capital letters, as requested by the curator), is composed of a series of works that trace the artistic trajectory of this important artist, born in São Paulo, Brazil. They are works created during the 1970s, which tackle a range of themes, materials and support bases. In this exhibition, the curator brings together a series of drawings, paintings, mail-art, graffiti and xerography (xerox art), many of them never seen before, such as the series in which the artist uses his own clothes, painting them and starching them, to create unique textile sculptures.

Hudinilson Jr. is a central reference for Brazilian graffiti and one of the few artists truly identified with marginality, with the underground and with homoerotic art in Brazil, through the media and urban intervention and also exploring the poetics of the body.

About the artist

Hudinilson Jr. is a reference for Brazilian graffiti and one of the few artists truly identified with homoerotic art in Brazil. Hudinilson Jr.’s oeuvre is considered marginal and underground. Using the media and urban intervention, his work explores the poetics of the body and discusses issues about moral and political values.

He experimented with multiple artistic expressions such as drawing, painting, mail-art, graffiti, xerography (xerox art), performance and urban interventions, where the human masculine body, eroticism and pleasure are recurrent themes. His work usually contains male frontal nudes or appropriates itself of photos and drawings of the gay and pornographic universe.

For many years his work was neglected by museums and galleries, as it elaborated forms of democratizing art which was present in the 1960s, such as “mail art”, “media xerox”, the appropriation of images in collages and even on wall graffiti. In 2011 the Galeria Jaqueline Martins began to represent the artist, and his work gained visibility in museums and galleries. The valorisation of his production was a question of time – and also of a discerning viewing of a experimental production with one of the most representative “marginal” characters of the 70s and 80s, time when the art market searched for increasingly palatable artistic production, in detriment of the more experimental or conceptual proposals.

Whilst he was still studying fine arts at FAAP, he would protest against the dictatorship in Brazil with his friends Mário Ramiro (1957) and Rafael França (1957 – 1991). In 1979, he founded the group 3Nós3 with França and Ramiro. Until 1981, the group carried out artistic interventions on the urban landscape in São Paulo, hooding public statues and tormenting the military. The 3Nós3 had as a premise to occupy, at the same time, both the space in the city and the space in the media. The occupation of mass media, the records made by the press, as well as photographic documentation and publications made by the group, are an integral part of these interventions. In addition, they carried out subversive acts in critique of the art market of that time, also tormenting the owners of art galleries and museum directors by sealing off the doors of a number of organizations and institutions in São Paulo.

An exceptional collage artist, Hudinilson combined references from the pop and the homoerotic universe to his personal story. In 1982, he began the series Exercícios de Me Ver, which consisted of the xerographic reproduction of parts of his own body, with exhibitions in the Galeria Chaves, Porto Alegre, and in the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo – MAC/USP in 1983. His graffiti work, using stencils, were elaborated from the 1980s onwards. During this period, he met Alex Vallauri (1949 – 1987), from who he received orientation and developed a partnership in some works. In 1984 he participated of the 1st Havana Biennial and of the exhibition Arte Xerox Brasil, in the Pinacoteca of the State of São Paulo, which he curated. He exhibited his work in the 18th edition of the Bienal de São Paulo in 1985 and in the 3rd edition of the Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul, in 2002. Neglected by the local art market, he was rescued by gallery owner Jaqueline Martins, who carried out two exhibitions with his work in São Paulo, in 2012 and 2013. His works were the gallery’s highlight during the ARCO 2013 fair, in Madrid, sparking the interest of international institutions.

Critique

With Narcissus’ eyes, Hudinilson leans over the xerox machine and records parts of his body. In a sensual act he dismembers upper body, legs, arms, sex, to then join them together or work each part on a support base which can be a collage, object, graffiti or even xerox. Ex-participant of the group 3Nós3, he sealed off gallery doors, hooded monuments with paper bags, and carried out a number of urban interventions. Next, taking the universe of the Greek myth as the central pulse of his oeuvre, Hudinilson began the search for himself in the projection of the other. Like a child who discovers the pleasure of playing with the mirror that returns his own image, Hudinilson Jr. played with these images. However, Hudinilson’s quest in the projection of the other never reflected itself in the art market. A marginal artist, he always maintained himself parallel to the circuit – until now. His death in August 2013 sparked a greater interest in his aesthetic stance, and his work has now become object of reflection and retrospective analysis by specialized critics.

http://www.galeriajaquelinemartins.com

Photo: Filipe Berandt
Courtesy of Galeria Jaqueline Martins