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“The language of theater is very old and full of tricks. And those tricks are always about pretending that something is something else, and making it very believable.” — João Penalva
After a career in dance, London-based Portuguese artist João Penalva (b. 1949, Lisbon, Portugal) moved into a career as a painter, but has always remained fascinated with the theater. On now at Simon Lee Gallery in New York, through February 29, 2020 is the first solo show in New York of this acclaimed artist since 2002. In it, Penalva explores his fascination with the unique phenomenon of the illusion created in the theater. As he states, “I don’t think they are about the theater, they are about the very particular phenomenon, which is the make-believe. And I am fascinated by the mechanism of this make-believe.”
In this trailer for the exhibition, Penalva talks about his fascination with the make-believe of theater, and how he explores it in his work.
From Simon Lee:
Penalva is known for making large-scale installations in various media, as well as more intimate works that combine painting, photography, video and found objects, image, text, and sound; addressing narrative modes and the relationships between each medium. His storytelling is often fractured, presenting juxtaposed narrative elements, allowing the viewer a latitude of freedom in their interpretation. […]
In this exhibition, as so often in Penalva’s practice, text is used to form the narrative framework of his works. Here, technical descriptions are used to title each work, yet they do not reveal the play, opera or ballet that these backdrops or props belong to. In doing so, Penalva constructs an equivocal relationship between factual and visual information, a strategy that lies at the heart of theatrical production, as well as the artist’s own practice.
