The exhibition marks the end of a portrait cycle initiated by Mateu Velasco in 2008 with research on the theme: colors and their deeper meanings. Owner of a very striking language, the artist presents medium-format canvases, sharing the same card, but with a new exercise in proportion and chromatic weight. The artist's portraits keep the pop language within a very feminine universe, a characteristic of Mateu, who has the influence of graffiti, but with noble features and precision as a result of his training as an illustrator.

 

The screens presented in _morphosis depict women whose hair is intertwined in different objects at first sight, but who share the idea of transformation, or metamorphosis. The choice of each element removes objects from their usual context, leading the viewer to seek less obvious meanings: the diamond, present in several canvases, can represent both the ancient transformation of nature and the inversion of society's values; the apple refers to gravity and the transformations that occurred after Newton discovered it. Thus, in the same way that _morphosis is a radical in Latin that generated words in several languages, the elements of the screens are for Mateu Velasco a visual game with the semiotics of objects and the semantics of words.

 

In addition to the canvases, Mateu also presents an installation inside the gallery made with textile spinning residues, light hoses and various items collected throughout his daily life. The choice of this material was used by the artist to provide a sensorial experience in addition to the two-dimensionality of his works: “My work plays with the iconography of our daily lives. The installation's challenge is to take the object's original function and insert it in another context ”, explains Mateu.

 

The exhibition is part of the Atlântico Contemporâneo program, an event that will bring together several art galleries at Shopping Cassino Atlântico, establishing the place as a pole of contemporary art in Rio de Janeiro.

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