Following a series of meetings with our represented artists, this week we visited Carolina Martinez’s studio, located at Rua Pires de Almeida, in Laranjeiras, in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro. The area is surrounded by the main and busiest street in the neighborhood, comprising one of the first large-scale real estate developments in the city – four-storey buildings designed in the 1920s that are spread along a cul-de-sac intersected by a small rectangular square . Detached from the city, the place resembles a typical neighborhood in any Mediterranean city, and as soon as we start walking there, the feeling is that time has come to a standstill.
Currently, Martinez occupies 2 spaces – one of them is the studio itself, a kind of attic located on the rooftop of one of those four-storey buildings, where the artist has been rehearsing a new palette, bringing more vivid colors that have already filled the spaces of newly created works on wood. The search for unusual angles and non-perceived spaces constitutes her research, which is very connected with architecture and geometry. Her most recent production takes the work of Mexican architect Luis Barragán as one of the main sources of inspiration. Black and white photographs of empty spaces have also been an incentive for new creations. Another field of her research is related to the design of site-specific works that resignify architectural elements, activating new connections within the space.
On the other side of the street, at the rear of one of the rows of buildings, a small garage has also been occupied by the artist, who takes advantage of the wider structure by assembling multiple works, in order to propose new experiences on perspective and exhibition arrangements.
Check in the gallery below some pictures of the visit.
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Pictures Gallery
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Bio
CAROLINA MARTINEZ was born in 1985 in Rio de Janeiro, where she lives and works. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture and Urbanism and a pHd in History of Art and Architecture in Brazil from PUC – Rio de Janeiro. She also attended several courses at Parque Lage’s School of Visual Arts, also in Rio de Janeiro. Throughout her creative process, Martinez investigates architectural spaces and urban surfaces. In her artistic production, she focuses on the viewer’s gaze towards empty and seemingly uninhabited spaces. In this way, the artist reveals invisible perspectives, such as the passage of time and light, through paintings, collages, assemblages and site-specific installations.
Martinez has participated in several group exhibitions in recent years, such as: AAA – Anthology of Art and Architecture, curated by Sol Camacho, Galpão Fortes D’Aloia and Gabriel, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2020); MOLT BÉ !, curated by Raphael Fonseca, Portas Vilaseca Galeria, Rio de Janeiro (2018) and Aproximações, curated by Zalinda Cartaxo, Galeria Celma Albuquerque, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil (2017). Among her most recent solo exhibitions, we highlight: Odeón, curated by Jaime Portas Vilaseca, Espacio Odeón, Bogotá, Colombia (2017); SP-Arte Solo Project, curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2016) and Aquilo que não conseguia ver, curated by Ivair Reinaldim, Portas Vilaseca Galeria, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015). In 2015, she participated in an art residency at Residency Unlimited, in New York (USA). In 2010, she received the Garimpo Award, promoted by DasArtes Magazine Brasil, and was also awarded at the 35th Contemporary Art Salon in Ribeirão Preto – SARP, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
For more information, check the artist’s profile page here.
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Following all WHO protocols, this visit respected the social distancing and use of mask requirements.