Paulo Nimer Pjota. Maureen Paley

Maureen Paley is pleased to announce our third exhibition by Paulo Nimer Pjota. This exhibition will be presented across the gallery’s two London spaces at 60 Three Colts Lane and Studio M and will coincide with his solo exhibition Every Empire Breaks Like a Vase, which is currently on view until 18 March 2022 at The Power Station, Dallas, Texas.

‘Paulo Nimer Pjota’s compositions are uncanny reflections of the free associations that accrue at the liminal edges of our collective stream of consciousness… (His) intermingling of things extracted from high and low culture, and from periods across history, exposed the mechanisms that determine our beliefs and behaviour. The contingency of being was teased out by these unlikely contiguities, revealing reality as a state in constant flux, transfigured with each successive encounter, and the present as a place where all of time collides.’

Cathryn Drake, Artforum, October 2021

The work analyses the formation, legacy and interrelations that exist between overlapping cultures by collating imagery from history, mythology, and the aesthetics of contemporary culture. Working on unstretched canvas and found sheets of metal retrieved from the street, he applies paint both as fields of colour and with photographic precision depicting a personal lexicon of convergent and at times contradictory symbols. He draws references from iconography and objects that stem from ancient cultures, the internet, and the city limits of Brazil. This synthesisation of imagery highlights his interest in collective phenomena and the global proliferation of images that can refer to different moments in history encapsulated within one work.

Presented alongside his paintings, he often casts objects in resin and bronze that draw from the potent imagery and presence associated with relics and totems creating shrine-like configurations within the exhibition space.

Paulo Nimer Pjota (b. 1988) lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. His most recent solo exhibitions include Every Empire Breaks Like a Vase, The Power Station, Dallas, Texas, USA (2021); Fragmented images, fragmented stories, DEO Projects, Chios Island, Greece (2021); Cenas de Casa, Caixa de Pandora, Ivani e Jorge Yunes Collection, São Paulo, Brazil (2019); Medley, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil (2018); The history in repeat mode — image, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels, Belgium (2017); The history in repeat mode — symbol, Morena di Luna, Hove, England (2017).

Additionally, his work has been included in institutional group exhibitions such as 1981/2021: arte contemporânea brasileira, CCBB, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2021); Images that don’t conform, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2021); Trouble in Paradise, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2019); Sea of Desire, Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France (2018); The Marvellous Cacophony, The 57th October Salon, Biennial of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Serbia (2018); O Triângulo Atlântico, 11ª Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2018); Painting |or| Not, The Kaviar Factory, Lofoten, Norway (2017); Soft Power. Arte Brasil, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, The Netherlands (2016); 19º Contemporary Art Festival, Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil (2015); Here There (Huna Hunak), Qatar Museums – Al Riwaq, Doha, Qatar (2015); Ce Monde Fabuleux Moderne, 13e Biennale de Lyon, MAC-Lyon, Lyon, France (2015), Imagine Brazil, touring exhibition, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway, MAC-Lyon, Lyon, France, DHC / Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada and Tomie Ohtake Institute, São Paulo, Brazil (2013-2015) and Entre-temps… Brusquement, et ensuite, 12e Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (2013).