Susan Segal

Jos Leonilson (1957-93) came of age as an artist as part of the 1980s generation in Brazil. What he shared with the diverse artistic milieu of that time was a so-called "joy of painting," rediscovered in the years following the end of Brazil's dictatorship. What separated him from his contemporaries was his personal way of working and his distinct aesthetic centered on raw emotional feelings, introspective musings and private affairs. Focusing on Leonilson's production as a mature artist, this volume features nearly 50 paintings, drawings and embroideries made between the mid-1980s until 1993, when the artist died of AIDS. In this short yet prolific period, Leonilson fully developed a unique artistic language in dialogue with other contemporary art practices, Brazilian vernacular traditions and global issues prompted by the AIDS crisis.

Beginning with a Bang! features the shift between the explosive and experimental moment in the Argentine art scene of the 1960s, and the current scene emerging after the extreme crises in Argentina during the last 40 years. In the 1960s, artists explored destruction and dematerialization to propose original contributions to the fields of conceptual and action-based art. Today, artists explore fiction and intimacy as critical strategies to review and rebuild the artistic system. The exhibition catalogue brings together a historical section as well as information of performance-based actions and sound and video works by Argentine contemporary artists: Marina De Caro, Ana Gallardo, Graciela Hasper, Roberto Jacoby and Syd Krochmalny, Fabio Kacero, Fernanda Laguna, Patricio Larrambebere, Eduardo Navarro, Leandro Tartaglia, and Judi Werthein. Included are essays by Ana Longoni, Victoria Noorthoorn, Daniel Quiles, and Gabriela Rangel; manifestos by Alberto Greco, Aldo Pellegrini, Manuel Peralta Ramos and Eduardo Costa, Raul Escari, and Roberto Jacobi, as well as a historical timeline of Argentine art.