Alvaro T. Guilherme, Astro, 2021
Red. And lines. Significant form, as Clive Bell would possibly term it. Blood, or fire, ashes and wood. Jumping loops, tongue-in-cheek movement as opposing the violent colours. Reference to ancient knowledge and rites through the primal forms and colours (#astro). Texture: strokes, scratches, splashes, signs. And yet, complete intent. Force, pain, despair, paired with a will to beauty. And (to) paint.
Alvaro T. Guilherme (*1992) is an autodidact painter born in Angola. He refers to his art as Neo Brutalism, not as a concept, but as an action. The terms catch the brute, forceful quality in his work. But as with the artist himself, there is a gentle, sensitive, essentially esthetic vein in all his paintings, drawings, sculptures. A force to recreate, visually rethink, Neo-generate. In the artist’s words: Define the work from its moment. Previous exhibitions included DAC_Cecentralized Art Club (2021), studio beta (2021), and LAWRENCE Galerie (2018).