On the occasion of the 2022 edition of Frieze Los Angeles, Nara Roesler is pleased to present a solo booth by artist Amelia Toledo.
Amelia Toledo (1926–2017) is a leading figure in Brazilian art in the twentieth century, with a career spanning over five decades, marked by distinctive engagements with constructive sculptural experimentations, that subsequently unfolded into iconic entwinements between art and nature.
Toledo was first introduced to the field of visual arts at the end of the 1930s as she began frequenting the studio of Brazilian modernist landmark artist Anita Malfatti (1889–1964), after which she studied under the guidance of Yoshiya Takaoka (1909–1978) and Waldemar da Costa (1904–1982).
Throughout her career, Toledo made use of several media and techniques, including painting, drawing,
sculpture, printmaking, installations, and metalsmith/jewelry design, always focusing on the use of materials and faktura. Her work was initially aligned with constructivist research, echoing notions of Neoconcretism and the characteristic preoccupations of the 1960s, with an interest for public participation, as well as for the entwinement of art and life. She developed her multifaceted oeuvre in permanent and mutually enriching interlocution with other artists
of her generation including Mira Schendel,
Tomie Ohtake, HeĢlio Oiticica, and Lygia Pape.
Her production resonates today more than ever through her continuous articulation of aesthetics and nature, ecology and form, stressing both
the sophistication of design and the roughness of matter/materials.