Rodrigo Bivar: Nothing thinks Nothing

Galeria Athena Contemporânea presents Nothing thinks nothing, Rodrigo Bivar‘s first solo exhibition at the gallery.

The title is taken from a verse by Alberto Caeiro (Fernando Pessoa’s pen name) in The Keeper of Flocks: “What will this think of that? Nothing thinks nothing”. For Bivar, if the writer says that ‘the intimate sense of things is that they have no intimate sense’, this makes us think that there would be no reason at all to write anything.

“But by writing he gives mystery back to the world, makes the world a place that’s a little more confusing and less pragmatic or functional, and I would like my paintings to have that quality”.

His abstract paintings, which took on a more rigorous tone starting with the Lapa series, now seem to radicalize the simplicity of the forms in a no less rigorous way.

Among other new developments in Bivar’s process, the artist has confronted the laborious act of removing the brush strokes from his paintings, leaving only structural vestiges on some of them.

Sometimes rectangular shapes reveal only a few lines of color concealed by white, suggesting a specter of the painting that also merges with the energy of his craft. Bivar finds beauty in art that dares to speak of nothing, or everything.

Born in Brasília (1981), Rodrigo Bivar lives and works in São Paulo. He graduated in Fine Arts from Fundação Armanda Álvares Penteado, São Paulo. Won the acquisition prize of Centro Cultural São Paulo, in 2008, when it held his first solo exhibition as part of the exhibition program of the institution.

The solo exhibitions already presented include: 2015 – Lapa (Galeria Millan, São Paulo, Brazil); 2012 – … ainda, assim, flutuante caiçara… (Galeria Millan, São Paulo, Brazil); 2010 – Rodrigo Bivar (Fundação de Arte de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil); Turista Azul: Temporada de Projetos (Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil); 2008 – Programa de Exposições (Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil).

Among his main group exhibitions are: 2016 – O Estado da Arte (Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, São Paulo, Brazil); 2015 – Aproximações Pictóricas (Galeria Athena Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil); 2014 – Correntes (SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo, Brazil); 2013 – SESC VideoBrasil: 18 Festival Internacional de Arte Contemporânea (SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil); 2012 – Pintura Figurativa (Centro de Exposições Torre Santander, São Paulo, Brazil); 7 SP – Seven Artists from São Paulo (C.A.B. Contemporary Art, Brussels, Belgium); 2011 – 32º Panorama da Arte Brasileira: Itinerários, Itinerâncias (Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil); Panoramas do Sul – 17º Festival Internacional de Arte Contemporânea SESC_VideoBrasil (SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo, Brazil); 2009 – Grau Zero (Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil); 2008 – 2000 e Oito (SESC Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil).