Born 1959
Lives Rio de Janeiro
Suicida Alto Astral
(The Upbeat Suicidal)
2006
(detail)
Acrylic on canvas
576x347cm
Courtesy Galeria Fortes Vilaça
Luiz Zerbini’s lush and visually tantalizing paintings, ranging from the theatrical and panoramic to textured tableaux, are richly figurative, with motifs drawn from popular culture and the flora and fauna of everyday life, while also employing elegant abstract designs. In his recent series ‘Trepanaçoes e outros artifícios’ (Trepanations and Other Artifices, 2007) the Brazilian artist creates an uncanny dialogue between wall-mounted paintings and floor-based sculptures of bones including skulls with small trepanation holes. Minha última pintura (My Last Painting, 2007), which Zerbini calls his version of Diego Velázquez’ Las Meninas (1656), is a dark, shiny monochrome that eerily reflects the viewer in its painterly abyss. (AS)
