The first solo exhibition of Felipe Cohen opens on May 5 at the gallery. Entitled “Sun that opens the sky”, the show brings together 3 series of works: 8 paintings from the “Eyelids Series”, 4 windows from the “Sunset Series”, and 3 new sculptures from the series “Time Line”. All the aforementioned series treat the landscape as a physical body, where the elements that make them up relate to each other in a way that recalls the first and last moments of the day.

About the title, the idea came from the way the sun appears in the three series in question. In the paintings, by the luminosity and shape; the areas that represent the sun seem to be openings of light on the surface of the canvas. In the three-dimensional pieces, this appears with the insertions of light felt shapes that interact with the other materials, sometimes reflective, sometimes dark and opaque. Regarding the materials, Cohen uses felt for its opacity, luminosity and “temperature”. And obviously for the interesting contrast with the polished stones and the transparency of the glass of the shop windows.

Besides these oppositions between materials, all the pieces arise from the relationship between circular forms and straight lines that cross them, creating duplicities or continuities. From these formalizations, the works establish tensions that emphasize the landscape as an organism. That is, they relate the elements involved in a sunset landscape, for example, in a way that creates a physical dependence between them, like a body where the parts are justified in the whole.

Since the beginning of his artistic career, in 2001, Felipe Cohen’s work has been based on the projective relations of drawing and sculpture. His practice develops from the tension between traditional and contemporary forms, with the intention of reinterpreting and updating the meaning of the materials used in his works.

Some of the exhibitions Cohen has participated in include: Pinacoteca: collection, Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2020), Contemporary Art in the collection of the São Paulo Museum of Art (2019), Past/Future/Present, Phoenix Art Museum (2017), Troposphere, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum (2017), Imagine Brazil, Musee d’art contemporain de Lyon (2014) and 8 Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre (2011).

He was nominated for the Pipa Award in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016 and was a finalist for the CNI SESI Marcantonio Vilaça award in 2011. He received the Illy SustainArt award in 2016, among others.