Serpa + Zalszupin

Ivan Serpa (1923, Rio de Janeiro – 1973, idem) and Jorge Zalszupin (b. 1922, Warsaw, Poland) have never met each other, as far as we know, yet the resemblances between their production is extraordinary. While Serpa cut the canvas in stripes and squares, Zalszupin cut leafs of jacarandá baiano to create table-tops for L’Atelier, founded by him in the 1950s. One could even think that the colour palette found in Serpa’s studies from the 1950s and 1960s was directly transferred to the coatings chosen by Zalszupin to his furniture from the same period.

This exhibition aims to present the resemblances between Zalszupin’s industrial design and Serpa’s artistic practice during the most prolific years of their careers, between the 1950s and 1970s. While the gallery’s walls will be covered by 25 works by Ivan Serpa, including paintings and drawings from the aforementioned decades, 17 furniture pieces by Zalszupin will be informally presented in the space, as if it was a residency.