Open studio: Suzana Queiroga (Rio de Janeiro)

"The question is whether we will have enough pure air to breathe"
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov

Artwork by Suzana Queiroga, born in Rio, confronts and questions the function of the air element as defined by form. How to physically define the form of air? In her sculptures, line is only a frontier delimitating membrane, as for instance in "Victoria Suite" of 2007 ( an inflated penetrable of 300x400x300cm, installed in Caixa Cultural do Rio de Janeiro) and in "Velatura" (also of 2005 and presented at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio, Galeria 90, Rio de Janeiro). The limit between the membrane that determines frontiers in Suzana Queiroga's work is not the art work itself, but actually the delimitation of our possibilities when closed within a system. Organic and geometric forms - two opposite and parallel vertentes - look for their antagonic. This antagonic - like birth and death, to breathe or not to breathe - involves the expectation and conduces it to this questioning. In her paintings however, the question of a form at the same time abstract organic and linear geometric (as in " System in Curve", in acrylic and oil on canvas, 160x240cm of 2006) - one is looking for the definition of the physical form of the system in coordination with the essential survival element (as in "Veloflux/B2" of 2008, in oil on canvas 160x130cm). There she once again readdresses the question Hans Arp (in his organic forms translated to canvas) and later the North American artist Brice Marden also approach. As well as more recently North American artist Jonathan Lasker and Austrian artist Peter Kogler. These issues have recently haunted several artists, as we observe already in the work of Hélio Oiticica where differences in challenges imposed on the limits of geometric and organic lines reach the very breath of the three dimensional limits of the form it reflects. As we observe in the physical dimension found in Queiroga's balloonist pieces, in this procedure there is an analogy with the proposal contained in Leonardo da Vinci's graphic studies for the first time ever construction of a linear barrage for containment of Vesuvio's lava in Naples. Developed from his observations at the Bay of Sorrento and the imaginary perspective acquired from an 1500m altitude view that recreates the imaginary space of the landscape and perspective. In such elements as air - found either in the limit of the frontier of this membrane (in materials such as plastic, paper, etc.) or addressed as material constitutive of her sculptures (defined by the lines that surround and determine it's systems, in painting and now in this paper installation developed especially for the Vienna Academy space) we can see the role of paper and it's levitation in the construction and achievement of a space. In a GESAMTKUNSTWERK in a predestined and delimitated architectural space. Which space comprises in it's subtle movement, the presence of air as a determinant of movement. Which movement - in a circulatory system - defines the flux of form. As also observed in the work of Ramjani Shettar. In truth, the itinerary of this search for conceptual value begins with Henri Matisse, in his collages; his only link with his already advanced struggle for survival. The scissor is the mediator between the line cut and life in the organicity of it's representations. The start of this process in Queiroga's itinerary takes place where her sculptures - as well as her paintings and now, more recently, her work on paper - determines the search for systems interconnected by networks and arteries that constitute a whole. (Rafael Raddi)

The artist:

Suzana Queiroga's work first appeared in Rio de Janeiro's art scene in the 1980s when the exhibition "Como vai você geração 80?" introduced the work of 100 young artists in 1984, causing significant impact on the future of Brazilian art. Queiroga is one of the most noted members of this group of artists who, along with Daniel Senise, Leda Catunda, Beatriz Milhazes, Delson Uchoa, Nuno Ramos, Cristina Canale among others, gained national and international expression .

Paintings, sculptures, installations, inflatables, and urban interventions are some of the various forms of expression chosen by Suzana Queiroga. A restless artist and researcher, her work stands out for its intelligent play, employing improbable and radical operations that break with tradition and forge a wide-ranging field of possibilities and infinite configurations. Unfolding in true network fashion, her art connects various media that intersect and intercross, creating a poetic and contemporary whole.

In the complex and plural universe of contemporary art, Suzana Queiroga invites us to follow her own path as a thinker. Queiroga's interest in different fields of knowledge, and her scientific and philosophical research leads her to interconnect diverse elements and cultural domains at the same time. It is not the aim of Queiroga's work to merely lead the audience to contemplation, she would like spectators to immerse themselves in a profound sensory field, to reach the mental space in which the work of art relates to being and time, and reverberates them. Relating to space and time, her work is also associated with the seminal thought of Brazilian artists Hélio Oiticica and Ligia Clark, renowned for making fundamental contributions to bring fine arts closer to reality by adding sensory experience to artistic expression.