Renan Cepeda “Bucolica” 01.09 – 06.10.2018

Gallery WM & AiArt are proud to present:

BUCÓLICA

by

Renan Cepeda

September 1^st through October 13^th 2018

Opening: Saturday 1^st of September 2018; from 17:00 – 19:00 hrs at Gallery WM

The artist will be present at the opening.

BUCÓLICA, photographer Renan Cepeda’s latest infra-red series, is like slipping through the looking glass and slowly opening the doors of perception. Stepping through, one enters a magical world of luminescent beauty. Incandescent scenes of contemporary Arcadia unfold; illuminated bucolic landscapes that crackle and pop seductively within their crystalised effervescence. This is pure, visual poetry of blackly oozing roads, yellowish shimmering grasses and sparkling, solitary trees standing sentinel on purple rolling hills.

There’s a paradox here; the colours that emerge from Cepeda’s self-modified infra-red cameras and filters harbour both the stillness of the poet’s gaze while at the same time dazzle in their psychedelic tropes. We had already received a taste of Cepeda’s ongoing exploration of infra-red reality through the publication of his mesmerising book RIO INFRAVERMELHO (2013, Casa da Palavra). Looking through my copy, I read the handscrawled dedication to us; “Seba, Wanda, Paul – This is the Rio I’ve been dreaming. It’s real, but invisible, delirious… Kiss you all. Meu Saravá! Renan. Dec. 2013.” And indeed, Cepeda’s gaze is the world as he dreams it, as it might have been, as it it could yet be. BUCÓLICA continues from there, leaping from the Rio of his dreams, exploring outwards, over hills and valleys, across glittering lakes and snow-capped mountain peaks, spanning regions, countries and continents. It is a psychedelic re-imagining of the world, a present-day antiquity, sprinkled with a few dainty drops of lysergic acid.

Of course, this infra-red turn in Cepeda’s imagery retains references to the Light-Painting technique and multiple series that he is so well-known for; whereby images are created from long-exposure, night-time shots that the artist “paints” with light, using a simple pocket torch and a few plastic filters. Because Cepeda resisted the temptation to indulge in the digital manipulation of the images, the composition of the picture and its presentation remain true to the simplicity of the object. With BUCÓLICA, he has the same fascination with carefully composed photographs, and takes the same delight in illuminating his “ordinary” subject matter and rendering it sparklingly magical; a veritably bucolic and dazzlingly luminous Oz.

Sebastian Rypson, cultural anthropologist and curator

Asurcocha 40x60cm (edition 8)

Biography:

Born in Rio de Janeiro in a Portuguese family, Renan Cepeda started taking black and white pictures at the age of 11, influenced by his father, an amateur photographer. Having graduated in Industrial Mechanics at CEFET-RJ, by the 1980s his experience was enriched by photojournalism at the newspaper Jornal do Brasil, collaborating with the country’s largest publications as well as being a correspondent of the French agency SIPA-Presse in Rio. Having his full time now devoted to the fine art photography, Renan Cepeda has been recognized for his artistic research on unusual photographic techniques such as infrared photography and light painting.

Edo 60x90cm (edition 4)

Renan Cepeda ”Bucolica” @ WM Gallery,  September 2018 © Pete Purnell

Media

Walter van Teeffelen about Renan Cepedada: https://bit.ly/2Dy6OBZ

Het Parool 6 september 2018:

Recent individual shows:

“Castles of Light in The Dark Night”, Instituto Cervantes, Rio de Janeiro, 2017;

“Carta Negra” (Black Letter), Reserva Cultural/Tempo Fotografias, Niterói, 2017;

“Should the invisible man be blind?”, SESC Space, Rio de Janeiro, September 2015;

“WAVE”, Tempo Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, April 2014;

“Harvesting the night at the snow star festival”, WM Gallery, Amsterdam, 2013;

“From the telluric gardens of Dona Lota”, CC Federal Justice (FotoRio 2013);

“From here you see”, Galería Tramas, Rio de Janeiro, April 2012;

“Knight Paintngs” – Galeria Tempo, Rio de Janeiro, 2011;

“Renan Cepeda – Photographs”, CRANIO, Rio de Janeiro, 2010;

“Vão de Almas”, Abraço Gallery, Lisbon, 2009;

“Night Paintings”, Galeria Tempo, Rio de Janeiro, December 2008;

“Vain of Souls” – Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France, April 2008;

“Kalungas and Graffitti”, Tepper Takayama Fine Arts, Boston, USA, 2008;

“Light Paintings” – Rudolfv Gallery, Amsterdam, 2007/2008;

“Vão de Almas” – Pinacoteca of the State of SP, 2007/2008;

“Graffiti of Light” – Galeria Murilo Castro, Belo Horizonte, 2007;

“Light Paintings” – WM Galery, Amsterdam, 2007;

“Graffiti” – Centro Cultural Bernardo Mascarenhas, Juiz de Fora, 2007;

“Graffiti” – Museum of Contemporary Art of Pernambuco, Olinda, 2006;

“Graffiti” – Cultural Ensembles of the Caixa de Brasília and Salvador, 2006;

“Invisibles” – Arte x Arte Gallery, Buenos Aires, 2004;

“Invisibles’- Anita Schwartz Gallery, Rio, 2002.

Recent collective shows:

“Quartel de Indaiá”, Installation, Museu Casa do Pontal, 2015;

PhotoEspaña 2015 – “América Latina, un pueblo al Sur de EEUU”;

Art and Heritage Award – IPHAN 2014. Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, 2014;

Contemporary Brazilian design – Federal Justice, Rio de Janeiro, 2012;

Sony World Photography Award, Somerset House, London, 2012

Invisible, Ateliê Oriente, Rio de Janeiro, May 2011;

“Rio”, Galeria Tempo, April 2011;

“The Circle and the Rectangle”, Galeria da Gávea, June 2010;

“Convergences”, Galeria da Gávea, August 2009;

“Language of Crossing”, Centro Cultural Justicia Federal, Rio, 2009;

Sony Wolrd Photography Award Tour: Cologne, Tokyo, Delhi, New York 2008/9;

Portes Ouvert de Belleville, Paris, France, May 2008;

“What is your Landscape?” Architecture and Urbanism Center, RJ, 2007;

“Nightclubs”, Casa do Saber, Rio, 2007;

“Magic Realism” with Helen K. Garber and Cassio Vasconcellos, Tepper Takayama Fine Arts, Boston, USA, 2006.

“Mano Doble”, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rosario, Argentina, 2006;

Galerie de L’Orangerie du Thabor, Rennes, France, 2005;

Color / Generations – Tepper Takayama Fine Arts, Boston, USA, 2005;

33rd Salon of Santo André, SP, 2005;

“Hand-Double”, Park Lage, Rio, 2005;

Salão Arte Para, Belém, 2004;

San Martin Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, 2004;

29th Salon of Ribeirão Preto, SP, 2004;

16th Salon of Praia Grande, SP, 2004;

X Salão da Bahia, Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, 2003/2004;

Foto/3, with Rogério Reis and Fabian – Anita Schwarz Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, 2003;

Multimedia Salon of Geneva, Switzerland, 2002;

“Transfigurations” – Light Cultural Center, Rio, 2001/2002

Due Olmi 40x60cm (edition 8)

Unicornio 60x90cm (edition 4)