Maxwell Alexandre. Nuevo poder: pasabilidad
La Casa Encendida presents the first solo exhibition in Spain of the Brazilian artist Maxwell Alexandre (Rio de Janeiro, 1990). In Novo Poder [New Power] series, Alexandre explores the idea of the black community inside the established temples for the contemplation of contemporary art: galleries, museums, centers and foundations.
Alenxandre emphasises three basic signs: the colours black, white and brown. The colour black operates as the black body manifested by the figurative depiction of characters; the colour white represents the so-called white cube, mirroring the exhibition space along with academic knowledge; and the colour brown represents the artwork while also making a self-reference to the paper used as the main support for the paintings in this series.
Another sign that progressively gains importance within the Novo Poder series is Fashion, which in this context functions in a similar direction as a tool for raising self-esteem. The element of Fashion is therefore presented as a sort of challenge to the colonial idea that sensibility and beauty are elements that do not belong to melanised persons.
To understand the entire message that Maxwell transmits in this series, it is necessary to first investigate the intention of his creativity in Pardo é Papel, a series that talks about a speculative future of glory, victory, partying, wealth, attitude, vanity and self-esteem for the black communities. If in Pardo é Papel the projection of upward mobility takes place through the ostentation of consumer goods, such as cars, jewellery and designer clothes, in Novo Poder the artist seeks intellectual and symbolic wealth: access to the quintessence of Western material production. That is, Art.
New Power series proposes the transmutation of reality, generating images of melanized people inside art exhibitions, walking with elegance, like “catwalks” through the exhibitions. This familiarity, evidenced and dealt with for the first time at La Casa Encendida, is the result of a process of assimilation and incorporation, or even understanding and experience, of the codes of both Art and Fashion, which grant these individuals confidence and self-esteem. These blossom into a gait or posture; a passability, emanating from the inside out. In other words, a walk that is not just an ephemeral passing through space, but a conquest for someone who has learned to belong and enjoy these spaces of aesthetic enjoyment with safety and tranquility.
It was in 2017 that Maxwell Alexandre’s work began to be shown, travelling from a sports complex in Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, to a gallery space, from there to a contemporary art fair and, soon, to the walls of the most famous Brazilian museums. It didn’t take long for the young artist to exhibit abroad, at Lyon’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and then at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris) and at New York’s The Shed, before Madrid.
Curated by Matthieu Lelièvre
In collaboration with Instituto Inclusartiz, A Gentil Caricoca and Maxwell Alexandre.
