rebuild_00 by Tomaz Hipólito

Download Exhibition Newsprint in PDF format

Exhibition and performance Sept. 29, 2011 6-9pm

Emily Harvey Foundation: 537 Broadway 2nd floor (corner of Spring st.)

Curated by Luísa Especial

The Emily Harvey Foundation is pleased to present rebuild_00,a new body of work by Tomaz Hipólito realized in New York.

With a background in architecture, Tomaz Hipólito´s work has evolved in several mediums such as photography, video, installation, performance and drawing. His practice is centered on staging and examining the way we perceive relationships between individuals, objects and space. Hipólito frequently revisits motifs and themes he explores over time, a process that reflects the importance the artist gives to “excavation” as he proceeds in his thematic research.

The starting point for this body of work was to produce photographs of New York City´s skyscrapers. While the project was initially intended to be more architecturally driven, it developed into a manifold path. Whereas his journey departed from an observation of facades and skyline views, from a more distant point of view set on rooftops, he then shifted to a more intimate gaze. He became interested in transitional vacant interiors before impending renovation, interacting with the objects he found there and staged fictitious and parody-like experiences within these sites. Later he returned to the “outside”, but this time to examine exterior views from and on selected rooftops. Throughout this exploratory progression, the artist familiarized himself increasingly with this theme and began to feature himself in the images he was producing. His immersion as a character in the work points to an increasingly accentuated performative expression.

The exhibition at The Emily Harvey Foundation presents a range of work that reflects these transitions, materializing in several formats that convey distinctive and personal visions about the city. The city is thus re-constructed (or rebuilt) through various research attempts and experiments with an underlying humorous tone, spanning from the look of a newcomer into a progressively more familiarized individual.

The artist will also conduct a performance during this event.

For more information, click here.

Tomaz Hipólito was born in 1969, in Lisbon and lives and works in New York and Lisbon. During his residency in Residency Unlimited he has presented his work at Lumen Festival (June, Staten Island), Hunter College (New York, August), Arte Institute on the Summer Nights Series at Union Square Park (New York, August) and a talk at PointB (New York, August). Upcoming venues will be held at Abrons Arts Center (New York, October), Residency Unlimited (New York, October) and Appleton Square (Lisbon, December). For more information please visit: www.tomazhipolito.net 

Luísa Especial is Assistant Curator at Residency Unlimited and an INOV-Art fellow. She has worked on several projects related to curating, writing and research for a diverse range of museums and art collections in Portugal such as Museu Colecção Berardo, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, BES Arte & Finança, Ellipse Foundation and Museu da Presidência da República.

Thanks to:

This exhibition is also made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.