Curated by Manuel Neves

The true homeland of man is childhood.
Rainer Maria Rilke

The Xippas gallery is pleased to present, for the first time in its Parisian space, an exhibition by Brazilian artist Santídio Pereira. The show brings together a selection of recent works, including monumental woodcut prints, wooden objects and monotypes.

Over the past five years, the artist has focused on the representation of tropical plants and Brazilian landscapes. Santídio Pereira’s artistic project reclaims and revitalizes the significant tradition of Brazilian woodcut, carried by renown artists such as Oswaldo Goeldi, Manoel Messias and Anna Maria Maiolino. These artists share a common approach where the woodcut technique is used to depict images of contingent reality within a refine and minimal aesthetic.
In this sense, the formal synthesis enabled by the woodcut technique connects Santídio Pereira’s work to the scientific tradition of botanical illustrations (which began to develop in the 6th century) where plant species are typically placed at the center of the page on a neutral background.

In this exhibition, the viewer can find representations of bromeliads (bromeliaceae), tropical plants native to the South American continent, characterized by stemless leaves, narrow rosettes and a deep calyx. Until the age of 8, the artist lived in the state of Piauí in Brazil, where a particular biome called caatinga is found, defined by a semi-arid tropical climate. This ecosystem is extremely rich in fauna and flora, with a prevalence of cacti and bromeliads. In Santídio Pereira’s work, nature and landscape are depicted both as fragile emblems in constant danger and as memories of his childhood. A childhood spent in permanent contact with nature constitutes a subtle space of nostalgia, similar to the homeland and identity that define one as an individual.

Manuel Neves
Curator