Nino Cais: Teach me How to Dance

Fridman Gallery presents the first solo exhibition in the United States by the Brazilian artist Nino Cais. Cais’ work, included in the 2012 São Paulo Biennial, deals with the tension between civilization and nature, the tortured relationship between the appearances we present to the outside world and the intimate narratives that break through the surface. The exhibition also comments on the importance of intuition and chance in artistic creation. With attentive and wondrous eyes, perhaps those of a foreigner or a child, Cais creates enigmatic and insightful visual associations.

The show is composed of approximately 30 book interventions, five installations, and one video. Combining images, objects and gestures from different realms, Cais underscores how primitive instincts are smothered by the weight of social rituals. Handkerchiefs and horseshoes precariously balance on opposite ends of riding whips, each element owing its fragile stability to the others. In the video, the artist, dressed as a jockey, simulates a galloping sound by hitting his own body, a victim of his own self-image.