Miguel Rio Branco
Millan, São Paulo
This is not the usual Miguel Rio Branco exhibition. While the artist has explored female sexuality in more or less explicit contexts throughout his work, be it in his feverish exploration of brothels in Salvador or the depiction of cheeky schoolgirls of Tokyo, the artist delved into the idea of womanhood and feminine eroticism in his latest solo show at Millan gallery in São Paulo.
Rebuilding part of his studio in the gallery space, Rio Branco establishes a context of intimacy in this exhibition, doing away with the white cube altogether. The space is transformed from floor to ceiling, a dark alcove of negatives, contact sheets, enlarged prints and scores of what seem to be studies and variations on a theme.
While the women in these portraits are often naked or take on a lascivious attitude, Rio Branco also seems to bare his creative process before the public. His series are not presented here as finished works crafted after a laborious process in the dark room, but rather a work that unfolds before the viewer’s eyes, an open ended territory of erotic endeavors.
Rio Branco is more provocative than ever in this series, but also more ambiguous. In this latest show, he seems to equate the unpredictability of erotic tension to the creative procedure behind his oeuvre, a thing made of passion and sculpted light.
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View of the show "La mécanique des femmes 2", at Galeria Millan.
Vista de la exposición "La mécanique des femmes 2", en la Galería Millan.
