Galerie RX&SLAG

Born in Brasília, João Trevisan (born in 1986) holds a degree in law. He has been exhibiting regularly since 2014. His first solo exhibition in a museum, “João Trevisan: Corpo e Alma,” was organized at the Museum of Sacred Art of São Paulo (2021), and more recently, he presented a solo exhibition at Galeria Raquel Arnaud in São Paulo (2023). Other solo gallery exhibitions have taken place at Central Galeria, São Paulo (2020), Karla Osório, Brasilia (2019), and Foro. Space, Bogota (2019). Among the thematic group exhibitions are Terra at Central Galeria, São Paulo (2020); O Sertão at the National Museum, Brasilia (2020/2021), and Slag Gallery, New York (2021). Trevisan’s works are part of numerous public collections, including the Casa da Cultura da América Latina, Brasília; MAR-Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro; MUN-Museu Nacional da República, Brasília; and MARP-Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto, Ribeirão Preto. – Upcoming: December 2024, a 300-page monograph on João Trevisan will be published.

The landscape paintings “Paisagem” by Trevisan are meditations on the mountainous landscapes of Minas Gerais, a large inland state in southeastern Brazil, known for its colonial-era towns dating back to the 18th-century gold rush. These intimate paintings with bodily accents suggest, for example, a sunset at dusk or a dark dawn where light pierces through the steep slopes of the mountains. Speaking of the light in his “Paisagem” paintings, Trevisan affirms that they suggest “the sunset or twilight of a sky that touches the slopes, it refers to the first or last rays of sun, covering the tips of the mountains, catching our visual attention”

João Trevisan is a Brazilian artist. Painted during an artist residency in Lisbon, Portugal, “Strangers at dawn” consists of two sets of oil and paintings depicting mountain landscapes and minimalist abstractions. At once dark and deeply meditative, while remaining ethereal and luminous, both sets of works are reflections on very distinct geographical landscapes: the flat plateau of the Brazilian capital Brasília where he was born and resides, and the mountainous territory of Minas Gerais where his grandparents live, who he often paid visits to as a child.

Trevisan’s minimalist abstract paintings – “Intervalos” – are based on years of meditative walks along the railroad tracks near his home in Brasília.

With dark black backgrounds, vertical lines of varying thicknesses, and a range of deep and dark colors, they evoke nocturnal scenes and landscapes. Trevisan’s geometric paintings are structured by intervals, comparable to a musical score. For the artist, “they are like a body of introspection, oriented towards the realm of metaphysics, as alluded to by their brightness, they are open to the outside… A silent meditative gaze, like the walks I enjoy along the railroad track.”

João Trevisan’s two series of paintings, “Paisagem” and “Intervalos,” are the result of a meticulous process of applying and burnishing successive layers of oil with the encaustic technique, resulting in a sensual surface in which natural light seems to be captured and refracted. Many references to contemporary and historical painting come to mind, but their sensual and unsettling presence is very contemporary.