The booth charts a conversation between the works of artists Sarah Almehairi. (b. 1998, UAE) and Gil Heitor Cortesão (b. 1967, Portugal). It conveys a dialogue between their bodies of work, highlighting and contrasting their nuances. Both artists place a strong emphasis on compositional characteristics of their art, of which intuitive layering and building act as vehicles in realizing the work.
For Sarah Almehairi’s works, she examines the construction of systems upon their destruction. Almehairi’s sculptural pieces center around themes of materiality, systems, interrelations and language. Through their material parlance, the differing grains and textures are her tools to compose numerous aspects of an overarching narrative. By contrasting color against neutral tone, Almehairi builds rhythmic substance from muted assemblages of wood.
For Gil Heitor Cortesão’s works, he investigates possibilities of the spaces he portrays. They act as frontiers to these environments, with explorative paint splatters as a means to disrupt these compositions. Observed from interior or exterior viewpoints, he utilizes archival imagery from 60s and 70s interior environments. Through reverse-glass painting, Cortesão works in the threshold between an image that is immediate, and one that becomes apparent.
The unifying concept between the paintings and the sculptural works lie in their ties to memory. With several subjects and nodes at play, fluctuating between image and poetry, Almehairi’s geometric abstractions break down, build and reassemble forms as constant iterations of themselves. In the still ambience of Cortesão’s environments, he forms dream-like atmospheres of rumination and reminiscing to navigate spaces void of human presence.
