On the Horizon: Hamilton Aguiar
BLANK SPACE is pleased to present Hamilton Aguiar: On the Horizon, featuring two central series of the artist’s career—Cores and Acqua. This exhibition will juxtapose the artist’s representative pieces and his new series on water landscapes. On the Horizon will be the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery and will be on view January 26 through March 5.
The exhibition will focus on the artist’s recent paintings after 2013, which marks the creative period during his current residence in Miami. Always striving to paint peaceful images, which viewers can contemplate with enjoyment, the artist tries to make people more aware of the beauty of natural landscapes we often find ourselves distant from. Remembering the warm climates of his native country in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he embarked on his journey for art to the United States, Hamilton continues to express the dynamics of nature and change of seasons.
Cores, which means “colors” in Portuguese exemplify Hamilton’s employment of rich colors. The paintings are an assembly of separate panels that come together to form one painting in different variations. The unique painting process involves applying oil paint expressively on a canvas covered with a thin layer of silver or copper leaf, to which he completes with a thick coat of resin. Each painting of Cores depicts the artist’s recurring motif—a leafless tree waiting to blossom. The motif captures the artist’s witnessing the change of seasons in New York, whose trees were bear when he first landed in the winter of 1987. His fascination when everything came to life in the spring led him to depict the pleasing moments of changing nature.
The technique of oil, metallic leaf, and resin continues in the Acqua series. The distinct use of oil paint on silver and copper surface draws back to the artist’s formative years when he learned to gild through restoration work for churches and public and commercial spaces. Inspired by his surroundings since relocating to Miami in 2013, Hamilton captures new sentiments in Acqua with this technique, portraying elements of ocean views generous in the beaches of Miami.
Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Hamilton Aguiar moved to the United States to pursue his passion for painting in 1987. Taking on his artistic career through exhibitions in New York in the mid 2000’s, Hamilton is now represented by several galleries across North America, and has shown in exhibitions and art fairs in the United Kingdom, Germany, Korea and Canada. After a few years developing ambitious studio projects in his native city of Belo Horizonte, Hamilton relocated to Miami where he works to this day.
