Henrique Oliveira, a Brazilian artist, is known for creating monumental installations that confront the viewer with a voluptuous magnificence.
For the Projective Eye Gallery in UNC Charlotte Center City, the artist will develop “FASCIA.” It will cover the 22-foot gallery wall with forms, colors and textures created from recycled, locally sourced laminate wood. To build the installation, which opens Friday, Jan. 31, Oliveira will be in Charlotte for approximately a month. The gallery will host a lecture and process party from 6 to 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 17. An opening reception for “FASCIA” will be from 6 to 8 p.m., Jan. 31. This free, public event will feature a collaborative performance with music and dance by College of Arts + Architecture faculty John Allemeier and E.E. Balcos that will be inspired by Oliveira’s work.
According to College of Arts + Architecture officials, Oliveira’s installations speak to the human experience on a physical and universal level. The site-specific works are painstakingly constructed of strips of weathered plywood and invade the space in an almost parasitic manner – protruding from walls and wrapping around architectural structures to suggest forms found in nature and the human body.
Oliveira’s accomplishments include fellowships at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.; the Cite International in Paris; the Fiat Mostra Brazil; Projeteis FUNARTE de Arte Contemporanea in Rio de Janeiro; and the CNI SESI Marcantonio Vilaca for the Arts. His installations and flatworks have been exhibited continuously throughout Brazil, including the São Paulo Biennial, as well as in France, Mexico and in the United States.
Funding from the Arts & Science Council; the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources; and the National Endowment for the Arts; is making this exhibition possible.