Simultaneous Exhibition - Contemporary Reflections
Dialogue
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One Off is pleased to present Dialogue Collages by Leo Coimbra Opening Saturday, 24 April - 10am to 4.30pm Ends 23 May 2021 Gallery Open Tuesday through Sunday, 10am - 4.30pm Please note that masks are mandatory around the gallery. |
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Preview of Works
Click thumbnail to enlarge and scroll through all images
About the exhibition
Collage is a lifeline, a form of rescue, a balancing experience: Another discipline in my search for spirituality. Whereas in painting I look for stability and continuity, collage comes in fractions through which I try to decipher paths, delineate figures. My Painting is an invitation to and utterance of internal stability, while collage allows me to bring out and shape the figure.
In this recent series, all of which done in Nairobi, in the reclusion set by the pandemic, I continue to develop artistic expression through upcycling and to reflect on memory and childhood. Like in previous stages of my work, I give new shape, new meaning and new life to massively produced items. From the jars and bottles, in “In Vitro” to printed paper, magazines and posters in these collages. Like a cannibal, I devour my earlier work.”
Solo Exhibitions
2019/2020 - In Vitro - Nairobi National Museum. Nairobi, Kenya
2019 - In Vitro - Museum of the Republic. Brasília, Brazil
2009 - Prayer Flags - Renato Russo Cultural Center, Brasília, Brazil
2004 - Family album - Visual Arts Gallery, Habitat Center. New delhi, India
2002 - Healing Work - Arte Gallery. Brasília, Brazil
1999 - Paintings - Gesto Gráfico Gallery. Belo Horizonte, Brazil
1999 - Crossings - Athos bulcão Gallery. Brasília, Brazil
1999 - Paintings - Capitu Gallery. Brasília, Brazil
1998 - Prima Obra Project - Funarte Gallery, Brasília, Brazil
1997 - Fragments - Ricardo Palma Cultural Center, Lima, Peru
1997 - Fragments - Alliance Française Gallery, Quito, Ecuador
1995 - Let it go - Center for Brazilian studies, Quito, Ecuador
Collective Exhibitions
2021 - Hope, the equilibrist - recycling affection - MR Paper Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2020 - Social distancing – covid-19 - One Off Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
2016 - Letter pieces, Postal art - deCurators Gallery, Brasília, Brazil
2016 - Where the wave beats, Museum of the Republic, Brasília, Brazil
2015 - Your Museum/My Museum - Museum of the Republic, Brasília, Brazil
2014 - Constellations, Objeto encontrado gallery, Brasília, Brazil
2003 - Holiday Salon Show - Maxwell Fine Arts, New York, USA
2003 - Brasília visual Arts Society Annual Show - Athos Bulcão Gallery
2003 - Expressive Identities/Mysterious Paintings - Maxwell Fine Arts, NY, USA
2002 - Leo Coimbra & Rafaela Mello - Pleiades Gallery, Chelsea, New York
2002 - We Three - Chacur Gallery, New York, USA
2002 - Made in Brazil - US District Court Gallery, Washington,DC, USA
2001 - Celebrating Darlan Rosa - Renato Russo Cultural Center, Brasília
2000 - Dulcina de Morais Salon - Winners Show - Império Burlesco Gallery, Brasília
2000 - Dulcina de Morais Visual Arts Salon - Caixa Economica Gallery, Brasília
1998 - Visual Arts in the Federal District - Cultural Foundation, Brasília
1996 - Five by Five - British Council Gallery – Quito, Ecuador
1996 - XL July Visual Arts Salon - Municipal Museum, Guayaquil, Ecuador
In this recent series, all of which done in Nairobi, in the reclusion set by the pandemic, I continue to develop artistic expression through upcycling and to reflect on memory and childhood. Like in previous stages of my work, I give new shape, new meaning and new life to massively produced items. From the jars and bottles, in “In Vitro” to printed paper, magazines and posters in these collages. Like a cannibal, I devour my earlier work.”
Solo Exhibitions
2019/2020 - In Vitro - Nairobi National Museum. Nairobi, Kenya
2019 - In Vitro - Museum of the Republic. Brasília, Brazil
2009 - Prayer Flags - Renato Russo Cultural Center, Brasília, Brazil
2004 - Family album - Visual Arts Gallery, Habitat Center. New delhi, India
2002 - Healing Work - Arte Gallery. Brasília, Brazil
1999 - Paintings - Gesto Gráfico Gallery. Belo Horizonte, Brazil
1999 - Crossings - Athos bulcão Gallery. Brasília, Brazil
1999 - Paintings - Capitu Gallery. Brasília, Brazil
1998 - Prima Obra Project - Funarte Gallery, Brasília, Brazil
1997 - Fragments - Ricardo Palma Cultural Center, Lima, Peru
1997 - Fragments - Alliance Française Gallery, Quito, Ecuador
1995 - Let it go - Center for Brazilian studies, Quito, Ecuador
Collective Exhibitions
2021 - Hope, the equilibrist - recycling affection - MR Paper Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2020 - Social distancing – covid-19 - One Off Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
2016 - Letter pieces, Postal art - deCurators Gallery, Brasília, Brazil
2016 - Where the wave beats, Museum of the Republic, Brasília, Brazil
2015 - Your Museum/My Museum - Museum of the Republic, Brasília, Brazil
2014 - Constellations, Objeto encontrado gallery, Brasília, Brazil
2003 - Holiday Salon Show - Maxwell Fine Arts, New York, USA
2003 - Brasília visual Arts Society Annual Show - Athos Bulcão Gallery
2003 - Expressive Identities/Mysterious Paintings - Maxwell Fine Arts, NY, USA
2002 - Leo Coimbra & Rafaela Mello - Pleiades Gallery, Chelsea, New York
2002 - We Three - Chacur Gallery, New York, USA
2002 - Made in Brazil - US District Court Gallery, Washington,DC, USA
2001 - Celebrating Darlan Rosa - Renato Russo Cultural Center, Brasília
2000 - Dulcina de Morais Salon - Winners Show - Império Burlesco Gallery, Brasília
2000 - Dulcina de Morais Visual Arts Salon - Caixa Economica Gallery, Brasília
1998 - Visual Arts in the Federal District - Cultural Foundation, Brasília
1996 - Five by Five - British Council Gallery – Quito, Ecuador
1996 - XL July Visual Arts Salon - Municipal Museum, Guayaquil, Ecuador
About the artist
Leo Coimbra is a Brazilian woman & visual artist, based in Brasília and currently living in Nairobi, Kenya. Her creative exploration is based on Abstract painting, collage and, more recently, assemblage and installations. In her work, she combines geometric symbolism and forms derived from modernism and constructivism, to produce a personal archeological and magical visual experience. She has shown her work in Brazil and in Latin America, in lower Manhattan and in the New York area, as well as in India and Kenya.
The Brazilian newspaper “Gazeta Mercantil” said of Leo Coimbra’s work that it is “an effortless interpretation without loss of significance….Her delicate themes represent images that call for reflection”.
The Brazilian newspaper “Gazeta Mercantil” said of Leo Coimbra’s work that it is “an effortless interpretation without loss of significance….Her delicate themes represent images that call for reflection”.
Comments & Reviews:
“the vivid painting that emblazons this issue’s cover, flesh and bones, is part of the healing series by the Brazilian artist Leo Coimbra.”
Editorial Note, “Flesh, Bones and Spirit”, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, The University of Chicago Press, 2020
“…a fascinating collection of objects and images, inspired by the Victorian “cabinet of curiosities” and “rooms of wonder”.
Daily Nation, Kenya, 2020, on the Nairobi “in vitro” show.
“Leo’s paintings are just as autobiographic as her installations and glass jars”.
Margaretta wa Gacheru, Business daily, Kenya, 2020
“You find yourself leaning for a closer look, and imagining a story behind (the glass work), like the make belief world of children”.
Kari Mutu, The East African, on the Nairobi “In Vitro” show, 2019.
“But what kind of knowledge is at stake in Leo Coimbra’s cabinet of wonders? I suspect the answer to this query would include concepts such as: time, memory, sorrow, cure, order, disorder, innocence, dream, sacred.”
Gustavo Pacheco, Brazilian Writer, 2019
“Leo Coimbra is artist, surgeon, healer, magician, artisan, challenging with a great sense of humour the chorus of reductive consumerism.”
Paulo Andrade, Visual Artist, 2019
“Leo Coimbra is a collector like the ancient nomads…Her vocabulary is invaded by new locations. Each visited landscape becomes a new talisman in her creative universe.”
Nina Coimbra, Visual Artist and Daughter, 2019
“…the probing of Leo Coimbra’s artistic personality occurs fundamentally through colour but goes beyond it. There are memory details in every segment of the painting: the small geometrical elements that prevail in each work form a gallery of archetypical drawings which closely relate to stone age, cave wall painting but that retain more recent geometrical shapes.”
Gazeta Mercantil, 2000
“the vivid painting that emblazons this issue’s cover, flesh and bones, is part of the healing series by the Brazilian artist Leo Coimbra.”
Editorial Note, “Flesh, Bones and Spirit”, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, The University of Chicago Press, 2020
“…a fascinating collection of objects and images, inspired by the Victorian “cabinet of curiosities” and “rooms of wonder”.
Daily Nation, Kenya, 2020, on the Nairobi “in vitro” show.
“Leo’s paintings are just as autobiographic as her installations and glass jars”.
Margaretta wa Gacheru, Business daily, Kenya, 2020
“You find yourself leaning for a closer look, and imagining a story behind (the glass work), like the make belief world of children”.
Kari Mutu, The East African, on the Nairobi “In Vitro” show, 2019.
“But what kind of knowledge is at stake in Leo Coimbra’s cabinet of wonders? I suspect the answer to this query would include concepts such as: time, memory, sorrow, cure, order, disorder, innocence, dream, sacred.”
Gustavo Pacheco, Brazilian Writer, 2019
“Leo Coimbra is artist, surgeon, healer, magician, artisan, challenging with a great sense of humour the chorus of reductive consumerism.”
Paulo Andrade, Visual Artist, 2019
“Leo Coimbra is a collector like the ancient nomads…Her vocabulary is invaded by new locations. Each visited landscape becomes a new talisman in her creative universe.”
Nina Coimbra, Visual Artist and Daughter, 2019
“…the probing of Leo Coimbra’s artistic personality occurs fundamentally through colour but goes beyond it. There are memory details in every segment of the painting: the small geometrical elements that prevail in each work form a gallery of archetypical drawings which closely relate to stone age, cave wall painting but that retain more recent geometrical shapes.”
Gazeta Mercantil, 2000
Comments by the Artist on the series presented in some of her shows:
“In Vitro” results from the need to develop a narrative of survival. I propose to occupy and fertilize the space within reused glass containers. I wish to surprise, to provoke the curious glance, through the glass. To “conserve” the meaning of those special events we most cherish, be they extraordinary or familiar. A collection of cutouts and collage of life: my “existential preserves”
“Prayer Flags” is a continuation and expansion of the previous series, building on the inspiration drawn from the Buddhist practice of allowing our prayers to be taken by the winds and absorbed by the forces of nature. Here, Art becomes an offering.
“Healing Work” began as a prayer or meditation for a dear friend that became seriously ill. Each painting was an invocation for healing and a recognition of the virtue of grace. Subsequently, I became inspired by the language of the “ex-voto” or of the “milagro”, a form of devotional painting common in the rural areas of Latin America. I propose a new reading of this form of Art that moves away from the narrative content which characterizes it but retains its dimension of reciprocity and exchange: the recognition of the magical force in faith is entwined with the concept of Art used as Cure or as the staging of the cure.
Through the “Fragments” series, my fractioned life and feelings can be read and interpreted in colors and form. These fragments evoke windows, puzzle pieces or broken glass. They can seem like satellite images or views captured from an airplane window. Through successive layers, the brushstroke reveals shards of colour, metal and paper. The superimposition of colour strata and collage provide a reflection on memory: a series of mementa.
In “Circular” I explore the many meanings and interpretations of the circle and of circularity: the circle of life, the eternal beginning. The compositions relate to the flow of time, to the blood stream, to the tides, to the fundamental notions of flux and reflux.
My “Boxes” look for that space of pure poetry and mystery masterfully explored by Joseph Cornell, that which he called the “poetic theater of memory”. In this series, I am inspired by childhood, by ready-mades and by Bispo do Rosario and Farnese de Andrade.
“In Vitro” results from the need to develop a narrative of survival. I propose to occupy and fertilize the space within reused glass containers. I wish to surprise, to provoke the curious glance, through the glass. To “conserve” the meaning of those special events we most cherish, be they extraordinary or familiar. A collection of cutouts and collage of life: my “existential preserves”
“Prayer Flags” is a continuation and expansion of the previous series, building on the inspiration drawn from the Buddhist practice of allowing our prayers to be taken by the winds and absorbed by the forces of nature. Here, Art becomes an offering.
“Healing Work” began as a prayer or meditation for a dear friend that became seriously ill. Each painting was an invocation for healing and a recognition of the virtue of grace. Subsequently, I became inspired by the language of the “ex-voto” or of the “milagro”, a form of devotional painting common in the rural areas of Latin America. I propose a new reading of this form of Art that moves away from the narrative content which characterizes it but retains its dimension of reciprocity and exchange: the recognition of the magical force in faith is entwined with the concept of Art used as Cure or as the staging of the cure.
Through the “Fragments” series, my fractioned life and feelings can be read and interpreted in colors and form. These fragments evoke windows, puzzle pieces or broken glass. They can seem like satellite images or views captured from an airplane window. Through successive layers, the brushstroke reveals shards of colour, metal and paper. The superimposition of colour strata and collage provide a reflection on memory: a series of mementa.
In “Circular” I explore the many meanings and interpretations of the circle and of circularity: the circle of life, the eternal beginning. The compositions relate to the flow of time, to the blood stream, to the tides, to the fundamental notions of flux and reflux.
My “Boxes” look for that space of pure poetry and mystery masterfully explored by Joseph Cornell, that which he called the “poetic theater of memory”. In this series, I am inspired by childhood, by ready-mades and by Bispo do Rosario and Farnese de Andrade.
Exhibition openings are usually on the last Saturday of every month, excluding December.
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