MISAKO & ROSEN is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition with artist Erika Verzutti. Verzutti was born (1971) studied and is presently based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Following her studies in Brazil, Verzutti attended Goldsmiths in London. The artist’s past solo exhibitions include “Pet Cemetery”, Galleria Fortes Villaca, Sao Paulo (2008) and Swallow Street, London (2009) as well as the group exhibitions “Haptic”, curated by artist Vik Muniz for Tokyo Wonder Site and the traveling group exhibition, “Neo Tropicalia When Lives Become Form”, first presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (both 2008-9) as well as a project with BolteLang, Zurich (2009). In 2009, MISKAO & ROSEN presented Verzutti’s work as part of a two-person exhibition with artist Tiago Carneiro da Cunha. Verzutti is presently working in Japan as part of a three month residency program atAIT (Art Initiative Tokyo) sponsored by The Backers Foundation. From May 22, the AIT residency two-person exhibition featuring Erika’s work will be presented at Gallery Side 2.

Erika Verzutti creates work in a wide variety of media including painting, sculpture and drawing. Verzutti’s representative works are an ongoing series of sculptures formed from basic art materials such as clay and bronze and comprised of familiar figurative fruit and vegetable forms rendered new through her experimental combination of said materials and shapes – two fruits conjoined to form an apparent animal.

Of her new body of work, Verzutti states :
drawings without frames, flirting with painting. choosing wood as a surface for experimentation of attractions amongst materials, to play with materials, materials being the first motivation for these works. tubes of japanese unique matt acrylic paint in colours that one will not find wherelse, markers, pencils, eraser, pencil sharpner, diy mysterious paints of which japanese labels i cannot read, spray chalkboard paint, staying around in the studio happy to be picked. the ambition is to have in each board a small terrain for a “free style” drawing-painting (as in free-style fight. could also be free style swimming, maybe, following some traditional modes and mixing them).

ball pen has a special role in the play, for its strong physical attraction to the boards, bringing a sensational hint of carving and engraving, another clue to the artist desire to embrace all types of known representation technics, to wake up in a technic of one’s own. quoting a recolection of drawing on forbidden school wooden tables, when children would furtively engrave their names and hearts with the names of their youthful crushes. here material meets a recurring strategy, in which the role of the beginner is performed, as if to regain the energy of the apprentice, it`s enthusiasm, freshness and luck.

the latest sculptures have incorporated vegetable cutting/ chopping to their tools of composition. the intimacy acquired with fruit and vegetable shapes, reaches their insides and counter shapes (starfruit cuts form stars, jackfruit tradicional cut for eating forms a cube). In the works at M&R these cuts could be identified in autonomous straight lines that arbitrarily divide and determine fields in the drawings. Hiding in the studio on top of the Yoku Moku cafe and factory far from home, thus far from habits that limit perception, indulging in a kitchen of experimentation, here showing the resulting chopping boards.

Two Persons Exhibition – Curated by AIT
Erika Veruzutti and Pradeep Mishra
May 22 sat- June 12 sat (holidays :sunday and monday)
Gallery Side 2 TEL：03-6229-3669
cooperated by The Backers Foundation
Contact : AIT (Art Initiative Tokyo) TEL： 03-5489-7277