Travel Tip: Art and Archaeology in Brazil
“Os Últimos Verdes” (The Last Greens)

The artist has found inspiration in the memories of his childhood and the towns of north-eastern Brazil’s hinterland. Nine works (sculptures, photographs and video) which unravel the artist’s concern with nature and recall the production cycle of Marepe – who has already had individual exhibitions at MAM-SP (São Paulo Museum of Modern Art) and at the Centre Georges Pompidou (France) – are on view.

Os Últimos Verdes (The Last Greens) takes over three floors and the terrace of the São Paulo gallery. Marepe usually proposes a different reading of everyday objects, one example of which is the work Camas de Vento (Beds in the Wind) in which popular folding beds assume new shapes when referring to windy skies and red-and-black-winged birds. “In the old days, I used to observe many of these birds in my hometown, Santo Antônio de Jesus. Now, seeing them is a much rarer event”, realises Marepe. Works such as “O Coro de Lata” (The Tin Choir) and “Metamorfose” (Metamorphosis) also demonstrate the matter of dislocated objects – jugs, funnels, pans and metal washbowls – as springboards to new meanings.

Marepe (Marcos Reis Peixoto) was born in 1970 in Santo Antônio de Jesus (Bahia, Brazil). He has studied visual arts at the UFBA (Federal University of Bahia) School of Fine Arts. In the 90s, he became one of Brazil’s nationally and internationally successful artists.

The artist has already had individual exhibitions at MAM-SP (São Paulo Museum of Modern Art), at the Centre Georges Pompidou (France) and Tate Modern (England). His works have also been present at the Venice Bienalle (2003), the São Paulo Art Biennial (2004) and the Mercosul Biennial (1999), as well as group shows in other important centres worldwide, such as the Reina Sofia Museum (Spain).