Nara Roesler Rio de Janeiro is pleased to present Soon the shadows disappear, Philippe Decrauzat’s third solo exhibition at the gallery. The show brings together around 20 recent works from the Screen and Gradient series produced between 2024 and 2025. These pieces further the artist’s ongoing research into fundamental elements of visual communication—such as color, light, lines, and forms—and their relationship with visual perception. Works from the same series have previously been exhibited in Geneva, Madrid, and Austria and are now being shown in Brazil for the first time.
The exhibition’s title, Release, is inspired by the studies conducted by Czech anatomist Jan Purkyně in the 1820s, one of the pioneers in the field of visual perception. In his research, Purkyně describes the images seen when the eyes are closed and pressure is applied to the eyelids—luminous shapes now known as phosphenes. These phenomena are particularly interesting to Decrauzat as they represent one of the most primal forms of visual experience.
Though Decrauzat is often associated with abstract and kinetic art, his practice differs from the optical art of the 1960s. His luminous effects, geometric patterns, and undulating compositions are not the result of purely mathematical projections or formalist exercises. Rather, his precisely executed elements stem from contemporary visual culture—drawing from pop imagery, cinema, technology, and science.
For instance, The Screen series references both digital screens and virtual images we encounter daily, as well as the aforementioned phosphenes. Here, the screen is treated as a surface that emits light—whether that be a monitor or the human eye.
As art critic Muriel Pic noted: “Screen immerses the viewer in a labyrinth of yellows, oranges, pinks, greens, blues, and purples—shifting shades that change as you look: from afar, you see the main lines; up close, subtle nuances; closer still, you can distinguish the screen itself and the floating cotton fabric beneath the pattern. In doing so, you glimpse other possible worlds.”
Another series on view, Gradient, was developed by Decrauzat in 2025. These works feature a regular geometry composed of a mesh of alternating dark and light squares. While the shapes are clearly defined, the same cannot be said for the colors: soft grays and pale whites compose an almost faded surface that seems to subtly vanish as the viewer’s gaze moves across it. This series establishes a dialogue with a film of the same name, Gradient (2021), which was screened at the Centre Pompidou in Paris upon its release. The film is a reworking of the silent cinema classic Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), by German filmmaker and expressionist master F. W. Murnau. Decrauzat completely rearranges the sequence of the original film, re-editing it using an algorithm. The resulting work is structured around a progressive gradation of whites—from dark to light—revealing the natural movement of light as a narrative device embedded in the original.
At 6:30 PM on April 30th, the day after the exhibition’s opening, Gradient will be screened at the Cinematheque of the Rio Art Museum (MAR) in a special session. The screening will be followed by a conversation between the artist and Jonathan Pouthier, curator of the film collection and program at the Centre Pompidou.