PRESS RELEASE
exhibition: Pedro Cabrita Reis: The Field
dates: 6 November – 20 December 2014
Peter Freeman, Inc. is pleased to present The Field, an exhibition by Pedro Cabrita Reis. Among the most widely celebrated Portuguese artists of his generation, Cabrita Reis has not shown in New York in ten years.
The Field, to be created on site in response to the gallery space, is the culmination of a project that Cabrita Reis began with his exhibition for the 2013 Venice Biennale, a remote whisper, and then further developed in his most recent exhibition at The Power Plant, Toronto, fourteen paintings, the preacher and a broken line (closing 4 January 2015). Each of these installations has been an all-over intervention, for which the artist has assembled and merged spare, found materials with industrial building supplies, and conjured vernacular elements of architecture to address the specific character and nature of the space at hand.
The essence of Cabrita Reis’ work is to be found in the very act of construction, yet does not strictly belong to any one medium. He has said he sees and thinks as a painter, even when working in three dimensions with materials like fluorescent tubes and wooden structures, like his “New York Paintings” to be introduced here. Entering his immersive installations is an experience of discovery and revelation, of happening upon a situation in the process of excavation or submersion; of encountering an at once familiar and foreign territory. One finds the co-existence of, on one hand, quietude, absence, or desertion and, on the other, theatricality, spectacle, and surprise. Embedded within these works is the possibility to delight, as well as the challenge to consider the nature of our relationship to the built and natural worlds.
“For me, an artwork is a produced reality that focuses on the experience of reality as an insight. Whoever is contemplating a work of art will sense a new wish to open himself up to reality. And once you have embraced the alien reality of a work of art, you can correspondingly also embrace reality as something alien, which for the first time allows you to perceive it. A work of art offers orientation for experiencing reality as a truly new terrain.” (Pedro Cabrita Reis, in an interview with Doris von Drathen published in a remote whisper, Ivory Press, 2013).
Pedro Cabrita Reis was born in 1956 in Lisbon, where he lives and works. Recent exhibitions include the installations in Venice and Toronto, mentioned above, as well as solo shows at De Vleeshal, Middelburg, The Netherlands (2014), Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon (2011), M – Museum for Contemporary Art, Leuven (2011), Carré d’Art, Nîmes, (2010), Hamburger Kunsthalle (2009), Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2009), Fondazione Merz, Torino (2008), Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2006), Kunsthalle Bern (2004), Camden Arts Centre, London (2004), and to represent Portugal at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003). Group exhibitions have included the Biennale de Lyon, France (2009), two São Paulo Biennales (1994 and 1998), and documenta IX, Kassel (1992). His work is in the permanent collections of Tate Modern (London), Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Fundação Serralves, Museu de Arte Contemporânea (Porto), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (Vienna), and Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin), among many other international institutions.
A reception for the artist will be held Thursday 6 November from 6 to 8 pm. For reproduction requests, interviews with the artist and general inquiries, please contact the gallery at 212-966-5154 or info@peterfreemaninc.com.
exhibition: Pedro Cabrita Reis: The Field
dates: 6 November – 20 December 2014
Peter Freeman, Inc. is pleased to present The Field, an exhibition by Pedro Cabrita Reis. Among the most widely celebrated Portuguese artists of his generation, Cabrita Reis has not shown in New York in ten years.
The Field, to be created on site in response to the gallery space, is the culmination of a project that Cabrita Reis began with his exhibition for the 2013 Venice Biennale, a remote whisper, and then further developed in his most recent exhibition at The Power Plant, Toronto, fourteen paintings, the preacher and a broken line (closing 4 January 2015). Each of these installations has been an all-over intervention, for which the artist has assembled and merged spare, found materials with industrial building supplies, and conjured vernacular elements of architecture to address the specific character and nature of the space at hand.
The essence of Cabrita Reis’ work is to be found in the very act of construction, yet does not strictly belong to any one medium. He has said he sees and thinks as a painter, even when working in three dimensions with materials like fluorescent tubes and wooden structures, like his “New York Paintings” to be introduced here. Entering his immersive installations is an experience of discovery and revelation, of happening upon a situation in the process of excavation or submersion; of encountering an at once familiar and foreign territory. One finds the co-existence of, on one hand, quietude, absence, or desertion and, on the other, theatricality, spectacle, and surprise. Embedded within these works is the possibility to delight, as well as the challenge to consider the nature of our relationship to the built and natural worlds.
“For me, an artwork is a produced reality that focuses on the experience of reality as an insight. Whoever is contemplating a work of art will sense a new wish to open himself up to reality. And once you have embraced the alien reality of a work of art, you can correspondingly also embrace reality as something alien, which for the first time allows you to perceive it. A work of art offers orientation for experiencing reality as a truly new terrain.” (Pedro Cabrita Reis, in an interview with Doris von Drathen published in a remote whisper, Ivory Press, 2013).
Pedro Cabrita Reis was born in 1956 in Lisbon, where he lives and works. Recent exhibitions include the installations in Venice and Toronto, mentioned above, as well as solo shows at De Vleeshal, Middelburg, The Netherlands (2014), Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon (2011), M – Museum for Contemporary Art, Leuven (2011), Carré d’Art, Nîmes, (2010), Hamburger Kunsthalle (2009), Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2009), Fondazione Merz, Torino (2008), Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2006), Kunsthalle Bern (2004), Camden Arts Centre, London (2004), and to represent Portugal at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003). Group exhibitions have included the Biennale de Lyon, France (2009), two São Paulo Biennales (1994 and 1998), and documenta IX, Kassel (1992). His work is in the permanent collections of Tate Modern (London), Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Fundação Serralves, Museu de Arte Contemporânea (Porto), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (Vienna), and Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin), among many other international institutions.
A reception for the artist will be held Thursday 6 November from 6 to 8 pm. For reproduction requests, interviews with the artist and general inquiries, please contact the gallery at 212-966-5154 or info@peterfreemaninc.com.