Herbert Baglione Mural in Progress

Herbert Baglione Photos From Opening Reception at Galeria Movimento Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

by Ariadna Zierold

For the first time in Rio, the show ‘RITO’, by Herbert Baglione, will be presented at Galeria Movimento in Copacabana. The solo exhibition, whose opening takes place today, brings together works of the São Paulo artist from the last 20 years. Nine screens and ten photographs, set the tone with conflicting emotions, a hallmark of Herbert. He moves from darker works to works in which colors predominate.

“From the 1000 Shadows Project, in which I explored the dark side and the issue of the shadows, I felt I needed to build a scenario with more light. This show is the way to this new collection of paintings ,” explains Herbert.

Herbert Baglione has been making compelling and narrative works on both the streets and in galleries for years. Baglione is renowned for his strong, simplistic street murals that are reminiscent of cave drawings, morphed with extraterrestrial images, brilliantly placed on rooftops and street surfaces, which are only visible in their entirety from an aerial view. His images are of the obese and the painfully anorexic – extremes of human shapes, elongated and rounded for the ultimate in simplistic, dramatic and iconic human symbols; thus illustrating his interest in human imperfection and extremes.

Brazilian artist, Herbert Baglione sends us his ongoing project “1000 Shadows” that find life in various forms and places around the world. His hauntingly beautiful works often installed in abandoned or forgotten places create striking imagery and impact in the most unexpected ways for the viewer.

The Artist explains: “I have been doing the shadows since 1999, during which period also began shooting with a Nikon FM10 analogic camera. At that time, my idea of ​​exploring photography went beyond the simple registration and cataloging of my artwork, the intent was to enhance way of looking at it and interpreting the painting inserted in different environments.

But it took 15 years for the idea of the shadows to stop being a loose element in my extensive line of work for, and to turn into a project. In July 2013 I painted the shadows in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, in the town of Parma in Italy, and thus the project 1000 Shadows was born.

The artistic interference with shadows changes according to the places where they are inserted, as well as the external interpretation from the image, and this is very interesting.

I have particular interest in finding places I have never worked before, such as a Garden from the seventeenth century, in the city of La Rochelle, ruins, a Church from the sixteenth century in the town of Celles Sur Belle and an underground hospital complex in Niort.

The “reading” of these places allows me to take the shadow to a unique path, which usually feeds and broadens the discussion because it brings light to the abandoned environment, and so I put the name of this series as “The path that the soul takes.” The idea for the name came from a conversation I had with my brother (William Baglione) about the places to do these installations. It is as if the soul is leaving an invisible trail on these places. ”

At the Underground Hospital in Niort: