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braZil, by Sergio Allevato, is a series of paintings on linen, as well as traps. When we see a fruit, it is already a plant, and soon it is neither. In this fantastic universe, an animal can be vegetation, and a pineapple, made of feathers. In this way, Allevato revisits an age-old confrontation with nature, proposing new categories and hierarchies. After all, to which kingdom do Allevato's creatures belong? The laws that govern this new world can only be discovered if we also become part of it - but in doing so, a new trap seems to appear: will we also undergo a mutation?

 

By working with Brazil's native fauna and flora, perhaps the painter's central question is: What is there in Brazil, beyond braZil? From the accounts of Pero Vaz de Caminhaand Hans Staden to the films of Carmen Miranda and Walt Disney - all marked by the tropical exuberance of the New World - What is this country made of beyond what has been exported? Allevato plays with these images that have been historically constructed and solidified by the entertainment industry. His irony balances two paradoxical elements: the strange, fresh, and renewed landscape built in his paintings, which at first glance seems so familiar.

 

In each of the canvases, the sensuality of color dazzles the eye, but in deeper layers, the ironic rigor builds the strengh of the compositions, reconciling complex emotions such as passivity and hostility, freedom and entrapment. His visuality is extravagantyet playful, acidic and humorous, while issues of identity and belonging are evoked. Without offering easy answers - quite the opposite. 

 

An award-winning artist with international recognition, having exhibited - and with works in collections and museums archives - in various cities in Brazil, the United States, and England, Sergio Allevato questions and reimagines the history and imagery created around Brazil, interested not only in what the country has been and is, but also in everything it could still become.

 

Christiane Laclau

Curator