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Kupfer is pleased to present a duo exhibition featuring London-based artists Anderson Borba and Alexandre Canonico. Bringing together a series of wall reliefs by Canonico and freestanding sculptures by Borba, the show has been conceived as a conversation between two artistic practices that make use of similar raw materials and procedures. In both cases, there is a strong sense of physicality and a keen interest in how materials behave and interact. Stylistically, the works are sometimes reminiscent of post-Minimalist or colour field abstraction (in the case of Canonico) and early 20th century sculpture or three-dimensional works by Brazilian self-taught artists such as Zé Bezerra or the figurehead carvers of the Lower São Francisco River (in Borba’s case). Borba and Canonico are, of course, artists of their own time. Even if these works occasionally carry indicial traits of an art historical lexicon of forms, they are ultimately concerned with issues of the present. From a material perspective, both artists employ cheap, industrial-grade wood commonly found in DYI stores, manipulating this material through the use of methods and gestures that are also characteristic of a DIY universe.
Anderson Borba (Santos, 1972. Lives and works in London) completed the Alternative MFA program at The School of the Damned (2018) and is currently enrolled at the MFA Sculpture at Slade London (2019 - 2021). His work has recently featured in exhibitions at Set Gallery, Off Shoot Gallery and Assembly Point Gallery (London, 2019). He is the recipient of the Herbert Seaborn Memorial Scholarship Prize at Slade (2020) and the Gilbert Bayes Scholarship (2020).
Alexandre Canonico (Pirassununga, 1974. Lives and works in London) is currently completing the Postgraduate Programme at the Royal Academy of Arts (2017-21). Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Buraco’, at Galeria Marília Razuk, São Paulo (2019) and ‘Standstill’ at Kubik Gallery, Oporto (2019). Forthcoming shows include New Contemporaries, South London Gallery (2021).
