Erika Verzutti: The Indiscipline of Sculpture

This is the first solo exhibition held in a Brazilian museum dedicated to the work of Erika Verzutti (São Paulo, 1971). Verzutti is a key artist for understanding the practice of sculpture today, in Brazil and internationally. Her thought-provoking forms explore new possibilities for the medium, vis-à-vis the origins and materiality of sculpture, as well as its formal intelligence.

Using a variety of materials, including bronze, concrete, stone and papier-mâché, Verzutti’s works are sensual and tactile, coarse and refined. At the turn of the century, the artist began to produce sculptures in series, grouped into distinct families of “swans,” “Tarsilas,” “jackfruits” and “cemeteries,” among others. The exhibition presents examples of works from all these families, suggesting multiple connections and dialogues between them. The artist’s most recent production is also included: “wall reliefs,” works that blend painting and sculpture and reference the history of art as well as everyday life in a novel way.

Verzutti’s references include books on art and social history, elements of flora and fauna, images in circulation in social networks and the media, evoking animals and plants, landscapes and minerals, everyday objects and art itself—by artists such as Tarsila do Amaral (1886–1973), Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957), René Magritte (1898–1967), Piero Manzoni (1933–1966), and many others. With their unusual character, the sculptures lend themselves to the unpredictable, at times with an element of humor, refusing to accept established definitions or traditions—hence the subtitle for this exhibition: The Indiscipline of Sculpture.

The exhibition is divided into seven sections, based on concepts from philosophy, psychoanalysis, popular culture and art history that relate in a poetic and critical manner to the artist’s oeuvre. The sections connect the works in multiple ways, according to their shapes, materials, themes and chronologies: “Becoming-Animal,” “Tropical Pathway,” “World Metaphor,” “Totemize the Taboo,” “Wild Modernism,” “Under Tarsila’s Sun (and Other Stories),” and “Strangely Familiar.”

Erika Verzutti: The Indiscipline of Sculpture is curated by Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director, and André Mesquita, curator, MASP. It includes works spanning from 2003 to 2021, including a new sculpture created especially for the occasion. The exhibition is part of the biennium of programming for 2021–22 dedicated to Brazilian Histories at MASP, and in this first year dedicated exclusively to female artists.

A fully illustrated monograph organized by Mesquita and Pedrosa accompanies the exhibition with texts by Mesquita, Fernanda Brenner, Dorota Biczel, Paulo Herkenhoff, and Ruba Katrib. With Portuguese and English versions, the 256-page publication is available through masploja.org.br or loja@masp.org.br. 

For additional information and images visit masp.org.br.