Austin Martin White: the lusophile

Capitain Petzel is pleased to announce ›the lusophile‹, Austin Martin White’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, spanning its entire exhibition space.

Drawing on the legacy of the Brazilian Baroque sculptor Antônio Francisco Lisboa (c. 1738—1814), known as Aleijadinho, whose biography has long oscillated between documented history and national myth, White presents portraits of the artist alongside depictions of his prophet sculptures at the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas. Other paintings draw on the woodcut covers of ›literatura de cordel‹, the popular printed booklets of Northeastern Brazil in which folklore, religion, politics, and history converge.

Working with a variety of media including polyethylene film, screen mesh, pigment, rubber, vinyl, and spray paint, White investigates the construction of historical memory, exploring postcolonial histories and the ways images shape cultural narratives while examining the unstable relationship between historical fact, national myth, and cultural identity.