Luisa Lambri & Ernesto Neto at Carnegie Museum of Art

Friday, 04 August 2006 10:44

Pittsburgh, PA - The of Art’s works of Italian photographer Luisa Lambri and Brazilian sculptor Ernesto Neto, two artists exploring the possibilities of minimal forms in space, are featured in this 57th Forum Gallery exhibition organized by Carnegie Museum curator of contemporary art, and curator of the 2008 Carnegie International, Douglas Fogle.  Forum 57: Luisa Lambri and Ernesto Neto will be on view at Carnegie Museum of Art August 12–November 12, 2006.

Luisa Lambri uses photography to investigate the relationship between subjective experience and architectural space.  She photographs decidedly non-iconic views of the interiors of well-known modern architectural structures, focusing on the idiosyncratic qualities of seemingly insignificant aspects of the interiors to convey that our experience of perceived space is personal and interpretive.  On view in this exhibition are a series of luminous and minimal photographs of a shuttered window taken by Lambri in the home of Mexican architect Luis Barragán.  She shot the images at different times during the course of a single day.  Shown in series, Lambri’s photographs document subtle differences in light and shadow and create an experience for the viewer of an ephemeral, dreamlike space.  In addition to a selection of five photographs from her recent Barragán series, the exhibition features four earlier photographs devoted to the designs of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.

“Lambri takes a poetic and subjective approach to architectural space rather than an analytical and objective one,” says Douglas Fogle.  “In the Barragán series, it is as if the viewer becomes another Alice just before stepping through the looking glass.”

Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto explores the corporeal, sensual, and tactile possibilities of sculpture through translucent fabric forms that are often anchored by bundles of aromatic herbs and spices.  His biomorphic sculptural environments challenge the somatic separation of subject (the viewer) and object (the art work). 

“Entering one of Neto’s environments is a little like walking into the interior of a body in a science fiction fantasy,” says Fogle.  “His works are both alien landscapes and familiar terrain.”

Neto’s Okitimanaia Ogu, 2000, was purchased by Carnegie Museum of Art for its collection in 2001.  It is a room-sized suspended sculptural form with bulbous appendages weighted down by large quantities of pungent turmeric, clove, and annatto.  This is the first time the work has been on view at the museum.

“It might seem odd to bring together two artists working in such divergent media,” says Fogle.  “On closer examination, however, it is apparent that both artists share a near obsession with the subjective, phenomenological experience of space and our own perceptual relationships with the world at large.”

General support for the exhibitions and programs at Carnegie Museum of Art is provided by grants from The Heinz Endowments and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Carnegie Museum of Art
The museum founded by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1895, Carnegie Museum of Art, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, is nationally and internationally recognized for its distinguished collection of American and European works from the sixteenth century to the present.  The Heinz Architectural Center, part of Carnegie Museum of Art, is dedicated to the collection and exhibition of architectural representations and to the study of all aspects of the built environment.

For more information about Carnegie Museum of Art visit our web site at www.cmoa.org.