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(New York - May 3, 2013) Edelman Arts is pleased to announce the solo debut in the United States of noted Brazilian painter Paulo Laport, a major presence in numerous private and public collections in Latin American and Europe. A figure in the forefront of Contemporary Brazilian painting, Laport had his first solo show in 1981 at the Galeria Gravura Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro. Renowned for his exquisite touch and luminous light effects, Laport offers a meticulous dialogue between edge and color negotiated by means of both brush and paddle strokes using tools of his own design. His elegant style has garnered critical and curatorial acclaim since his first gallery exhibition, quickly entering museum collections (including the Museum of Modern Art in Rio and the Musee D'Art Contemporaine FAE in Lausanne) and receiving high honors at salons and biennials primarily in Latin America.
Laport's most recent paintings, oil on canvas and on paper, will be on view at Edelman Arts from May 22 to July 3, 2013 (accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by cultural historian Charles A. Riley II, PhD). The works subtly disclose layer upon layer of emerging tones and rhythm that shimmer with the iridescence of pearls and marble. As the artist notes in the catalogue, the pianissimo of his palette leads to a high-impact visual experience: "The calibration given by the paddle and the brush, the width and pressure, are done to pull out the undercoat in the coat being applied over it. That's why you see both dimensions at the same time. It should create a visual collision. Normally you approach to see small things. When you do, you are hit by a train."
In an extensive essay on Laport's recent work, art historian Guilherme Bueno, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art and professor of Brazilian Art History at the School of Visual Arts in Rio de Janeiro, comments, "This slow painting, in which respect is contradictory to the fast-moving modern world, requests of us a perception that I would not call introspective (which would make it sound romantic), but rather immersive (i.e., it requires accurate attention under prolonged exposition)."
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1951, Paolo Laport was educated in New York at both the Art Students League and Pratt Institute. His paintings have been awarded honors in such prestigious salons as the first Rio de Janeiro Sal�o de Ver�o in Rio de Janeiro, the Concurso Nacional de Artes Pl�sticas in Brazil, the Sal�o Nacional de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro, the Trienal Latinoamericana de Grabado in Buenos Aires and the Biennale Italo Latino Americana di Tecniche Grafiche in Rome.
Laport's work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Bienal Nacional 76 in S�o Paulo, Sotheby's Parke Bernet Gallery in New York, Galerie Lehmann in Lausanne, Galerie Gerard Leroy in Paris, the 3rd Bienal Internacional de Arte in Valparaiso, the 4th Bienal de Gravura Latino-Americana in San Juan and Arte Actual de Ibero-America in Madrid, among others.
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