Artist: Alvaro Seixas
Exhibition title: The Importance of the Devil
Venue: Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Date: November 28, 2019 – January 18, 2020
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Cavalo is pleased to present ‘The Importance of the Devil’, Alvaro Seixas second solo-show with the gallery. The Brazilian artist, known locally for his critical posture and comical, confrontational posts on social media directed at curators, gallerists, collectors and art collectives alike, presents all new works at the space in Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition takes its name from a 1932 essay by Spanish writer José Bergamin, defending the necessity of the role of defiant provocateur in the art world.
In ‘The Importance of the Devil’, Seixas presents a series of paintings produced in 2019, with motives ranging from expressionist abstractions to reinterpreted mythological scenes, littered with cartoonish characters and phrases about the art world. Here the artist evokes everything from the demons of English romantic poets John Milton and William Blake to the exoticized imagery of Jean-Baptiste Debret, a painter known for his portrayal of daily life in colonial Brazil.
Alvaro Seixas continues his research on installational painting, choosing an unusual layout for the works in the space. This time there are new features such as graphic prints on paper, fabrics, and photographic backgrounds, inspired by the tradition of painting as well as the dynamics of smartphone imagery, expanding and contradicting his role as a painter.
In his homonymous text, José Bergamin praises ambiguity as a value. This is also a central theme of Alvaro’s new production, which exercises irony to satirize the art system and from there reflect on figures of power, morality, and the positions of martyr and traitor. “How to be popular and pop while being unpopular, that is, by betraying the scene?” The artist wonders. ‘How to oppose the art system within that system itself? How to criticize and flirt with the system while being one of its agents?
In a time of global political instability, Seixas’s slogans and his tragic, romantic, angry and nihilistic texts attempt to bring down deified works of Brazilian and global art.
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (The Hater), 2019, acrylic on linen, 100 × 80 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Latin Art, 2019, sublimation printing on synthetic fabric, variable dimensions
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Young Curator), 2019, acrylic on linen, 35 × 28 cm
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Romantic Landscape), 2019, oil and enamel on linen, 30 × 20 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Night in the Tavern), 2019, acrylic on canvas 36 × 28 cm
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Bacchanalia), 2019, oil on linen, 30 × 20 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Soft Nihilism), 2019, acrylic on linen, 50 × 40 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Latin Art, 2019 (detail), sublimation printing on synthetic fabric variable dimensions
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Brazilian Artist), 2019, acrylic on linen, 100 × 80 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting, 2018, acrylic on linen, 180 × 120 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Red Dragon), 2019, acrylic on linen, 180 × 120 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Acephale), 2019, acrylic on linen, 180 × 120 cm
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (The Pain of The Other), 2019, acrylic on linen, 50 × 40 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Your Body is an ArtFair), 2019, acrylic on linen, 50 × 40 cm
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Too Ugly), 2019, acrylic on linen, 60 × 60 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Abstract Figure), 2019, acrylic on linen, 25 × 20 cm
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Devil’s Flower), 2019, acrylic on linen, 100 × 80 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Bleeding Devil), 2019, acrylic on linen, 53 × 40 cm
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Little INRI), 2019, acrylic and spray on linen, 50 × 40 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Romantic Painting), 2019, oil, acrylic, spray and collage on linen, 180 × 120 cm
Alvaro Seixas, Untitled Painting (Romantic Painting), 2019, oil, acrylic, spray and collage on linen, 180 × 120 cm
Alvaro Seixas, The Importance of the Devil, 2019, exhibition view, Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro