Where: Bondi Pavilion Gallery. Queen Elizabeth Drive, Bondi Beach

When: February 1 to 13

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Here’s what I wrote for the show:

Made in Brazil

A creative exploration of energy

Works in mixed media on paper & oil on linen (2004-10)

I was born in a small town north of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in 1970. I spent my childhood living in the states of Piaui, Minas Gerais and Rio before moving to Bondi Beach with my family in 1983. I finished my schooling in Sydney and went on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Art from the University of New South Wales. I have successfully exhibited since 1991 and my work has been featured in many publications and is held in private collections in Australia, Europe and South America. I am currently represented by Iain Dawson Gallery in Paddington.

These works were created in three places: my hometown in Brazil; a wild and deeply spiritual place on the NSW South Coast; and in the studio and garden of my workplace in Bondi. Every piece shares my desire to attempt to enrich my work with a more direct capturing of energy from both inside and outside of my body. This could be compared to the mountainsides near where I was born which are solid granite on the inside, but externally teeming with plants, animals, waterfalls, extreme weather. Or a submerged rock platform on the South Coast which is crawling with life: lobsters, crabs, starfish – as well as being the deathbed of the long lines of swell which travel thousands of miles from the south to be finally unloaded upon its ancient volcanic core. Then there is Bondi of course: a hard and frazzled urbanised colony tempered by sweet sea breezes and an inexplicable constant joy de vivre.

This show focuses on energy – the ‘cosmic’, creative energy that is present in our bodies as sexual energy and also in the world around us. It resonates differently in different places. I’ve deliberately chosen works spanning the last six years in which my quest to engage with this energy has been quite focussed. Hence, many of these works are on paper as opposed to the works on canvas which I usually exhibit. For me, paper lends itself to spontaneity and speed and I can move my body around differently – in a dance with my environment.

In these works I have brought the immediate environment into the work in the form of sand, earth, clay, ground rocks. I often worked outdoors– sometimes in the rain so the raindrops became part of the work too. I even tried working in the dark so I could concentrate on the energy rather than the product. I feel that a certain purity and immediacy linked to the energy at the moment has been captured in these works.

The thread that links the places where I created these works – and the energia – is a visceral force which is the core of life itself as understood by the devotees of the Dionysian religion of Ancient Greece. Dionysos tells us that life is energy. As a Brazilian this is something I deeply understand. My heritage culture naturally responds to this life-force in many ways: through Carnaval, capoeira, and the music of Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and many others. It is how we are made.

Leonardo Cremonese, Sydney, 2010

Work I will be showing

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEbJW2t7w3s

iain dawson gallery
20 – 31 October 2009

72a Windsor Street
Paddington, Sydney
www.iaindawson.com/

Leonardo Cremonese Exhibition opening night

Leonardo Cremonese Exhibition opening night

Leonardo Cremonese Exhibition opening night

Leonardo Cremonese Exhibition opening night

Leonardo Cremonese

See the exhibition online: www.iaindawson.com/

EXHIBITION DETAILS

When: October 20-30, 2009

Where: Iain Dawson Gallery – 72A Windsor St Paddington, Sydney

Opening night: October 20, 6pm.

To see all the works online click here.

Numphios: oil on linen, 66 x 76cm

Dionysian Joy: Oil on linen, 137 x 183cm

Orion's Dog: Oil on linen, 76 x 73cm

To see all the works online click here.

In these works I was still interested in the properties inherent to the materials, as I was last year (see “my creative process unplugged” blog entry below), but with a greater focus on a more metaphysical kind of energy as well.

Since coming back to Australia – and back in the studio – I keep pursuing this direction, as well as using a wider range of materials than the usual oil on linen.

If there is any spiritual insight to be gained from this process I won’t know what it is until sometime after the work is completed… more about it when the time comes.

October 2009 Paddington Show Announced

On another note, I’m happy to announce that  I’m now being represented in Sydney by Iain Dawson Gallery ( www.iaindawson.com ), and have locked in dates for an exhibition there in October 20 to 31 2009.

This show Mainomenos Dionysos will consist of my first consciously Dionysian body of work, produced in 2007 but never previously exhibited. This should be my strongest show to date, since this work marks the consolidation of the new direction I embarked on in 2006 and which was exhibited with great success last year.

If you are on my mailing list you will be receiving an invitation to the opening drinks. If you are not but would like to be please sign up here. Hope to see you there.