65 Tonico Lemos Auad | b.1968 Brazil Porcelain 2019 woven paper, wool and linen on linen in purple heart wood frame 64.5 x 63.5 cm ; 25 3/8 x 25 in
$28 000 – 35 000 PLACE BID Artwork location | London, United Kingdom Tonico Lemos Auad’s varied practice investigates materiality, sensuality, process and how people negotiate the space around them. Auad was born in 1968 in Belém, Brazil. He now lives and works in London, UK. Auad explores physical manifestations of belief, specifically looking at the personal or cultural significance afforded objects in everyday life. Often encompassing notions of architecture and landscape, Auad’s unique way of working subverts traditional techniques associated with craft such as embroidery, woodcarving and stonemasonry. This year Auad exhibited at Biennale Gherdëina VII in Ortisei, South Tyrol, Italy (curated by Adam Budack). In 2019, Stephen Friedman Gallery presented two separate solo projects by Tonico Lemos Auad and Mamma Andersson at Frieze London, winning the 2019 Frieze Stand Prize. In 2016, Auad was the subject of a major solo exhibition at De La Warr Pavilion in East Sussex, UK. In 2011, a collection of specially commissioned sculptures titled ‘Carrancas and Reflected Archaeology’ were exhibited as part of the Folkestone Triennial in Kent, UK. Other recent solo exhibitions include ‘Tonico Lemos Auad’, Pivô, curated by Kiki Mazzuchelli, São Paulo, Brazil (2015); ‘Paisagem Noturna’, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil (2013); ‘Tonico Lemos Auad’, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK (2012-2013); ‘Sleep Walkers’, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2011); ‘Epílogo,’ Zapopan
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Museum, Zapopan, Mexico (2010); and Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, USA (2007). The design of Tonico Lemos Auad’s recent textiles are loosely inspired by Derek Jarman’s iconic coastal garden at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness. Evoking a psychedelic, cinematic state of mind, Jarman’s borderless and roughhewn garden spreads all the way to the distant horizon where sky, sea and shingle meet as one. Such limitless vistas and desert-like colours feature in Auad’s work, with architectural forms and distinct borderlines demarcating open areas of woven textile. Auad combines a variety of different techniques to make his textiles including knitting, crochet, needle work and weaving. In addition, Auad employs diverse types of yarn: silk, wool, linen, cotton, paper and natural fibres. Working on several works at a time, the genesis of each composition is entirely intuitive. In ‘Vitamin T’ (2019), George Vasey (Curator at Wellcome Collection, London) writes that Auad demonstrates an “emotional acuity with his use of colour and material... While his work is often laboriously constructed, there is a refreshing simplicity in the way it looks, reminding us of the potential of the human hand.” Auad’s works are defined by the process of their making, slowly revealing each individual stitch, crocheted loop and interwoven thread.
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