Aires de Gameiro
Stoppage Time
16 December 2023 - 10 February 2024In Aires de Gameiro's exhibition at nouveaux deuxdeux, the flat and abstracted paintings stand out for their clear color palette, exploring the interplay of color and form, as well as reality and memory. With an apparently intuitive and effortless skill, de Gameiro weaves heterogeneous impressions from the athletically pervasive context into a motif deliberately detached from easily readable pictorial narratives. While it is possible to discern objects or even situations, any hint of narrative content or restrictive structures that could diminish the personal experience and interpretation of viewers is deliberately avoided. Instead, a reflection on painting itself emerges – its ability to generate ambiguity and create spheres that go beyond the simple reproduction of actual reality.
These abstracted forms, skillfully bypassing conventional boundaries, unfold as a fascinating amalgamation of childish, archaic, or abstract memories, providing space for individual imaginings and narratives. Despite the apparent simplicity in composition and the flat execution, de Gameiro's works possess a surprisingly intense visual allure, achieved through the integration of flowing contour lines meandering across the canvas and the adept play of contrasts, evoking a sense of movement and dynamism. This, in turn, initiates a captivating discourse in the art historical examination of the diverse relationships between color and form.
The works can be understood within the framework of the artist's formative athletic football past, encapsulating significant and emotional scenes of memory in an abstracted form. Similar to Raoul de Keyser, field markings, lines, and mesh nets emerge as grid structures, attempting to explore the painterly potential of the canvas. The artist emphasizes the composition of elements, enhancing the synergy of the work and its visual language, rendered more alluring through the impasto technique. Gameiro explores the diverse, playful expressions and positions in the field of painting, structuring the vast field of painterly possibilities and their ever-expanding boundaries.
The evocative title of the exhibition, 'Stoppage Time' refers to the additional time granted due to interruptions after the regular time of a game. Aires De Gameiro's works offer perspectives into the essence of these significant moments, providing the opportunity – even if only for these brief moments – to create something new for oneself.
- Text by Katharina Loyo
Aires de Gameiro, born 1989, in Lisbon, Portugal. Lives and work in Berlin.
graduated in painting from the Universidade de Lisboa and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia in 2013. 2019- 2023 he has been studying under Prof. Tobias Rehberger at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. De Gameiro founded the interdisciplinary art space Las Palmas in Lisbon and has presented his work in international solo exhibitions;
Emerge Project Space, Italy (2023); A.MORE Art Gallery Milan, Italy (2022); Balcony Gallery in Lisbon (2021) and the Mauro Mattei Art Trust Aquisition Prize in Milan (2019).His works have also been featured in several group exhibitions, at Fundação Caixa Geral de Depósitos in Porto (2021), Frankfurter Kunstverein (2021), Fidelidade Arte Lisbon (2020), Lehmann + Silva in Porto (2020), Kunstverein Wiesbaden (2019) and at the Spazio Buonasera in Turin (2019).