"Connections" - José Patrício

The Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art is pleased to present the work of Brazilian artist José Patrício in the context of The Pharos Trust’s Brazilian Month. The opening will take place on Friday 5 September, 8pm in the presence of the artist.

The work of José Patrício offers an interesting example of the novel and unusual way Brazilian art reveals its constructivist tendencies. He began by making serial geometric compositions with different elements, finally settling on dominoes as a medium full of possibilities. It was due to his interest in modular elements, used in his work at the end of the 90s, that Patrício discovered domino pieces were suitable elements for compositions of chromatic and graphic structures. The pieces allow a great versatility for visual and poetic expression in which the creation of chromatic and graphic situations occur, from the universal language of numbers, expressing virtual and abstract realities.

‘Perhaps from José Patrício we can learn that even the most rigid mathematical formula is capable of containing its own expressivity, that even the most abstract arrangement is able to dialogue with the exuberance of the popular traditions, that constructivism was never that far from Dada and that the singular only becomes evident through repetition.’ Painting by Numbers, Michael Asbury, 2008.

José Patrício’s work explores the relationship between order and the possibility of its dissolution; his floor installations reveal the fragility of order which is emphasized by the imminent possibility of chaos, produced by the slightest inattention.

Highlights among his solo exhibitions are; the Pinacoteca do Estado São Paulo, 2008; "Ars Combinatoria", Abbaye de Silvacane, France, 2005; Ceará Museum of Contemporary Art, 2003; Bahia Museum of Modern Art, 2002; Paço das Artes, 2002; Paço Imperial, 2001 and the Aloísio Magalhães Museum of Modern Art, 2000. He also participated in the 22nd São Paulo International Biennial, 1994; III Mercosul Biennial, 2001; Políticas de la Diferencia – Arte Iberoamericano Fin de Siglo, Recife and Malba, 2001; 8th Bienal de la Habana, 2003; 28th and 29th Panoramas da Arte Brasileira, 2003 and 2005; Postcards from Cuba, Norway, 2004; Discover Brazil, CINÉTICO[S], Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid and São Paulo, 2007.

José Patrício lives and works in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil where he was born in 1960.

Opening: Friday 5 September, 8pm