Photo: Daniel Cabrel
Lia D Castro: Everywhere and Nowhere Lia D Castro
MASP PRESENTS LIA D CASTRO’S FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION IN A MUSEUM
The artist’s paintings show moments of intimacy and affection in an investigation into prejudice, masculinity, racism and power structures
July 5 to November 17, 2024
It is impossible to reflect on the work of artist and intellectual Lia D Castro (Martinópolis, São Paulo, 1978) without talking about encounters, contrasts, frictions and transformations. Starting July 5, visitors can view the exhibition Lia D Castro: Everywhere and Nowhere, at MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand. The artist’s first solo show in a museum brings together 36 works, most of which are figurative paintings. The selected works explore scenarios where affection, dialogue and imagination become important tools for social transformation.
The title of the exhibition stems from the historical absence of minority groups in positions of power and decision-making—nowhere—while their presence and workforce make up the foundations that sustain society—everywhere. Curated by Isabella Rjeille, curator, MASP, and Glaucea Helena de Britto, assistant curator, MASP, the show features the artist’s entire body of work.
Lia D Castro uses prostitution as a research tool and develops her production from encounters with her clients—mostly white, heterosexual, cisgender men, of middle and upper class—to subvert relationships of power or violence that may arise between them, merging life history and social history. Themes such as masculinity and whiteness, as well as affection, care and responsibility, are addressed on these occasions and result in collaborative paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and installations.
In such moments, she talks to these men and invites them to reflect: when did you realize you were White? And when did you discover yourself to be a cisgender, heterosexual? “Questions to which the artist does not seek a definitive answer, but rather to provoke a position within the racial, gender and sexuality debate,” says curator Isabella Rjeille.
Lia D Castro’s conversations with these men are permeated by references to important Black intellectuals such as Frantz Fanon, Toni Morrison, Conceição Evaristo and bell hooks. Phrases taken from the books of these authors, read by the artist in the company of her collaborators, are inserted onto the canvases and blend in with the gestures, scenes, colors and characters. Lia D Castro’s work becomes a place of encounter, clash and friction, in which actions, images and imaginaries are debated, revised and transformed. The artist often inserts references to other works she has done, including them in a different context and, consequently, assigning new meanings and readings to these images.
“Based on Frantz Fanon’s notion that racism is a repetition, I propose countering it with the repetition of images. Since images build culture and memory, by placing one work inside another, I am trying to create new aesthetic references,” says the artist.
PAINTINGS AND ARTISTIC METHODOLOGY
Lia D Castro’s work is organized into series, the largest of which is Axs Nossxs Filhxs, featured in this exhibition. Developed in Lia D Castro’s living room and studio, a meeting place for commercial, intellectual and affective exchange, the series presents a creative process marked by collective choices, from the color palette to the signing of the works. Repetition is a central feature: through this resource it is possible to recognize gestures, characters and situations, as well as other works by the artist that appear represented on the canvases, accumulating meanings. The use of “x” in the title of the series refers to the diversity of family formations and affective bonds beyond blood relations or the monogamous heterosexual family. The use of “x” is also used to encompass different genders.
Lia D Castro also portrays herself in paintings from this series. While the men are naked, she is dressed. Her body is covered in bandages glued to the canvas, forming a long white dress, contrary to the historical tradition of Western painting, in which the vast majority of nudes are female.
The artist also subverts these characters by painting them in moments of pause, rest, leisure, reading and contemplation. “The political character of Lia D Castro’s work questions the social imaginary that links violence and subalternity to non-hegemonic bodies in Western art,” says co-curator Glaucea Helena de Britto.
Lia D Castro: Everywhere and Nowhere is part of MASP’s annual program dedicated to Queer Histories. This year’s program also includes exhibitions by Gran Fury, Francis Bacon, Mário de Andrade, MASP Renner, Catherine Opie, Leonilson, Serigrafistas Queer and the large group show Queer Histories.
ABOUT LIA D CASTRO
An artist and intellectual, Lia D Castro was born in 1978 in Martinópolis, São Paulo, Brazil, and currently lives and works in the capital. The artist has had solo exhibitions at Instituto Çarê (2022), in São Paulo, and at the Martins&Montero Gallery (2023), in São Paulo and Belgium. Her group exhibitions include the 10th Mostra 3M de arte – Lugar Comum: travessias e coletividades na cidade, at Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo (2020); A verdade está no corpo, at Paço das Artes, São Paulo (2023); Middle Gate III, at De Werft, in Belgium (2023); Hors de l'énorme ennui, at Palais de Tokyo, in France (2023); and Dos Brasis: arte e pensamento negro, at Sesc Belenzinho, in São Paulo (2023). Her work is part of the collection of the Martins&Montero Gallery (São Paulo and Belgium) and S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Belgium).
ACCESSIBILITY
All of MASP temporary exhibitions have accessibility features, with free admission for people with disabilities and their companions. Visits are offered in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) or descriptive language; texts and subtitles are available in enlarged font and audiovisual productions in an easy language, with narration, subtitling and interpretation in Libras that describe and comment on the spaces and works. The content can be used by people with disabilities, school groups, teachers, illiterate people and other interested parties, and is available on the museum’s website and YouTube channel.
CATALOGUE
On the occasion of the exhibition, a bilingual catalogue will be published, in English and Portuguese, made up of commissioned images and essays by key authors for the study of Lia D Castro’s work. The publication is organized by Isabella Rjeille and Glaucea Helena de Britto, and includes texts by Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Glaucea Helena de Britto, Isabella Rjeille and Tie Jojima. Designed by PS2 – Flávia Nalon and Fábio Prata, the publication will come in a hardcover edition.
MASP MUSEUM STORE
In dialogue with the exhibition, the MASP Museum Store presents special products by Lia D Castro, including a bag, postcards and a bookmark, as well as the exhibition catalogue.
SERVICE INFO
Lia de Castro: Everywhere and Nowhere
Curated by Isabella Rjeille, curator, MASP and Glaucea Britto, assistant curator, MASP
1st basement floor
Visitation: July 7 – Nov. 17, 2024
MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand
Avenida Paulista, 1578 – Bela Vista
01310-200 São Paulo, SP
Phone: +55 (11) 3149-5959
Hours: Free on Tuesdays and first Thursday of the month; Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (admission until 7 p.m.); Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (admission until 5 p.m.); closed on Mondays.
Online booking required via masp.org.br/ingressos
Tickets: R$ 70 (general admission); R$ 35 (seniors and students with ID)
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