Theodore Ereira-Guyer
The Thicket
13th May – 30th June 2022
Elizabeth Xi Bauer is thrilled to announce Theodore Ereira-Guyer’s exhibition The Thicket, his first solo presentation at the Gallery. On this occasion, the artist will show a series of large-scale, never before seen etchings that continue his ongoing investigation into the subject of memory – what is kept and what is left behind.
The process of printmaking, especially the way in which Ereira-Guyer practices it, necessarily involves a loss of information between the plate and the paper. Even if it is a technique aimed at reproducibility, Ereira-Guyer favours single or a few compositions being generated per plate – every time a print is made, different aspects are emphasised whereas others are lost. Ereira-Guyer thus establishes a parallel between printmaking and the very mechanism of remembering. In this exhibition a selection of the etchings on show are hung on walls, in a more conventional manner, whilst others are displayed throughout the space, over structures that resemble screens. This maze-like architecture aims to create an immersive environment where viewers feel nested by the works, encouraging a sense of intimacy between person and object.
In The Thicket, the artist exhibits both a homonymous series and another titled The Pond. Both are magnanimous in size, nearly in the limit of what is possible to do with paper without tearing the material apart. Each series presents fundamental aesthetic differences. The Pond works are horizontal compositions with imagery, as the artist makes clear in the title, that addresses the mud-like vegetation that is typical from such environments. They are hung on the walls as individual works at a low height, close to the floor, emulating ponds as they exist in nature. These etchings are attached to wooden boards that are dyed in strong colours; each of the combinations aim to create a harmonious palette between composition and wood.
The homonymous series follows contrasting patterns between wood and paper, for instance pairing an orange frame with a dark green composition, or a green frame with a blue one. Moreover, in these works the wood has a sculptural quality, occupying space in addition to serving as a support. These billboard-like structures, welcome visitors to walk both in front and behind them – though the prints are attached only to the front of the structures. In contrast to The Pond, these works are vertical compositions that are exhibited in groupings of three, creating a sense of continuity and narrative between the individual parts, reinforced by the fact that these unique works share a colour scheme. A direct relation between title and imagery is also evident in these works: the etchings are rich and lush with a variety of plants.
The artist completes this presentation with a series of blue sculptures titled Columns made of pigmented plaster, that are scattered throughout the exhibition space, acting as punctuation marks. Both in the way they are cast and in the way they are coloured, they look unfinished, ambiguous in whether they are still in the process of being made or already falling apart. The works echo anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss declaration, made upon visiting Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the 1930s, in which he stated: ‘’Here everything looks like it is under construction, but it is already in ruins’’. In this series, Ereira-Guyer continues to evoke the unreliable and often fleeting nature of time passing and memory.
Notes to Editors
Theodore Ereira-Guyer (born 1990, London, U.K.) lives and works between London and Lisbon, Portugal. From 2009 to 2011 he studied at Central St. Martins, London, followed by the Royal College of Art between 2012 and 2014. In 2016 Theodore began studying for his PhD in Contemporary Art at the College of Arts at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Ereira-Guyer’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private and public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U.K.; the British Museum, London, U.K.; Tate, London, U.K.; MoMA, New York, U.S.A.; Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, U.S.A.; the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France and the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal.
In 2014 Ereira-Guyer was the recipient of the esteemed Helen Chadwick Award for multidisciplinary artists. In 2019 the artist’s work was exhibited at the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava as part of the 58th Venice Biennale.
Ereira-Guyer’s practice refers to knowledge that is not heuristically available through experience; to what happens when the objects of knowledge are removed from the human gaze but still activate a form of remembrance and agency. His artist book Human Concerto, which contains the music notation for the sound of the human body when it is resting in complete silence, was selected for the catalogue of the acclaimed showcase KALEID Editions.
Theodore Ereira-Guyer: The Thicket runs from 13th May – 30th June 2022, open Wednesday through to Saturday, 12 – 6 pm or by appointment. A Private View will be held on 12th May 2022, 6 – 8 pm in the presence of the artist. Theodore Ereira-Guyer will be available for interviews.
