Booth walkthrough
HENRIQUE OLIVEIRA
Almeida & Dale (São Paulo)
In English, without translation.
Open to the public.
There is a particular privilege in standing in front of a work and hearing, directly from the artist, how it came into being. Henrique Oliveira is interested in the unstable boundary between nature and the human-built world: where architecture begins to resemble an organism, and growth can appear both seductive and invasive. His work considers transformation and the strange persistence of natural systems inside manufactured environments. ESTE FOCUS is a moment to look closely, listen carefully, and understand the ideas behind the work, and the process that brought it into being.
CURATORIAL VISION
Almeida & Dale presents a solo project by Henrique Oliveira bringing together sculpture, wall-based works, and painting. Oliveira works with materials often associated with construction and discard—including plywood, cardboard, tree bark, wood, and papier-mâché—to create organic forms that move between the natural and the built environment. Works from the Xilempasto and EXLP series occupy the threshold between painting and sculpture, producing three-dimensional structures that evoke roots, tree trunks, and fragments of landscape. His paintings extend this sense of fluidity through layered, abstract compositions. Together with the sculpture Conundrum (2020), the presentation examines material transformation, cycles of growth and decay, and the shifting relationship between human construction and natural systems.
BIO
Henrique Oliveira (b. 1973, Brazil) works across painting, sculpture, and installation, using reclaimed and everyday materials to explore relationships between organic growth and the built environment. His solo exhibitions include Galeria Millan, São Paulo; Kupfer, London; Galerie Vallois, Paris; Gifu Museum of Fine Arts; and Palais de Tokyo, Paris. He participates in the Abu Dhabi Biennial, Lagos Biennial, Triennale Brugge, Bienal de Cuenca, Bienal de São Paulo, and Mercosur Biennial, among others. His work has also been presented at institutions including QAGOMA, Brisbane; Centro Pecci; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.