On view through June 10th, at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Barrão’s exhibition Mash Up marks the Brazilian artist’s first US solo show. In organic configurations, Barrão’s work assembles different second-hand ceramic nick-knacks in hybrid sculptures that point not only to the Brazilian tradition of ceramic decoration – a legacy originally stemming from Portugal’s famous porcelain/ceramic tiles and artifacts production – but also to the appropriation strategy of the ready-made. Cleverly titled Mash Up the exhibition exemplifies Barrão’s maneuvers of making new assemblage compositions from diverse populist objects while raising contemporary notions of sampling and remixing to contemporary art.
