The Lobster Loop at MONITOR

Artists: Tomaso de Luca, André Romão, Andreia Santana

Exhibition title: The Lobster Loop

Venue: MONITOR, Lisbon, Portugal

Date: September 29 – November 18, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and MONITOR, Lisbon

MONITOR Lisbon is happy to announce the next exhibition, The Lobster Loop featuring works by Tomaso de Luca, André Romão and Andreia Santana, opening on 29th September, until 18th November 2017.
The exhibition will debut new works by the three artists.
The invitation was proposed due to the common ground of the three artists, which often deal with sculptural practices that come from an investigation through human aspects and sciences, reflecting on economical, cultural and political systems in a contemporary context.
With its beginning through some e-mail exchange between the artists, The Lobster Loop is imagined as a fictitious post-apocalyptical dive bar set in a dystopian future. In this fictional future, the artists develop a practice “in context” where the works are inscribed as possible artefacts, tools and memorabilia. The Lobster Loop exists in a reality where time, genetics, gender, politics and economics are dissolved.
Tomaso de Luca (Verona, 1988) is interested in the critic analysis of the political structures in which materials are embedded. His sculptures, drawings and dysfunctional architectures destroy and recompose reality, by reducing it to its constitutive pieces, which are then reconfigured in a new, unexpected order. These materials emerge as a political matter, which is sexualized, racialized, eroticized and profoundly embedded in structures of power. As for André Romão (Lisbon, 1984), he is interested on the conflicts of the body with
the natural and the historical, thinking around systemic violence and its possible poetic resistance. He has often been dealing with the human aspects that are hidden in cultural systems of production, exploring the confrontation of macro and micro-structures in contemporary society. Andreia Santana (Lisbon, 1991), approaches material culture production through the lens of social sciences, such as archaeology. She establishes a relationship between artistic practice and these social sciences that analyse and perpetuate the
existence of objects, raising problematics on issues like labour, manuality, conservation, cultural systems and heritage.
The exhibition will also feature a text by Sofia Lemos, inspired by the artists’ exchange based on counterhistoriographic and speculative history-writing methodologies.
This exhibition will unveil the main intentions for MONITOR in Lisbon, having an experimental and fresh approach, investing in young art practices and establishing connections between Rome and Lisbon’s art scenes.

The Lobster Loop, 2017, exhibition view, MONITOR, Lisbon

Tomaso De Luca, The Visit, 2017, Ink powder on resin and fiberglass

Tomaso De Luca, I Drink Because of You, 2017, Ink powder on resin and fiberglass

The Lobster Loop, 2017, exhibition view, MONITOR, Lisbon

Andreia Santana, Rigatino, 2017, Brass

The Lobster Loop, 2017, exhibition view, MONITOR, Lisbon

Tomaso De Luca, Cokehead, 2017, Fiberglass and epoxy

Tomaso De Luca, Cokehead, 2017, Fiberglass and epoxy

André Romão, Chemical sweat, 2017, Plexiglass, vaseline; Upper torso, 2017, Sculpture fragment (Portugal, 1936), plexiglass, plaster, patella, mussel, coral, barnacle

The Lobster Loop, 2017, exhibition view, MONITOR, Lisbon

André Romão, Upper torso, 2017, Sculpture fragment (Portugal, 1936), plexiglass, plaster, patella, mussel, coral, barnacle

André Romão, Chemical sweat, 2017, Plexiglass, vaseline; Upper torso, 2017, Sculpture fragment (Portugal, 1936), plexiglass, plaster, patella, mussel, coral, barnacle

André Romão, Upper torso, 2017, Sculpture fragment (Portugal, 1936), plexiglass, plaster, patella, mussel, coral, barnacle

Tomaso De Luca, Falling, 2017, Ink powder on paper

The Lobster Loop, 2017, exhibition view, MONITOR, Lisbon

Tomaso De Luca, B.B.B.B.R.R.P.P.S.S.S.V, 2017, Iron, resin, papier-maché, plaster, jute, varnish

Tomaso De Luca, Cokehead, 2017, Fiberglass, epoxy, clamp

The Lobster Loop, 2017, exhibition view, MONITOR, Lisbon

André Romão, Chemical sweat, 2017, Plexiglass, vaseline; Upper torso, 2017, Sculpture fragment (Portugal, 1936), plexiglass, plaster, patella, mussel, coral, barnacle