Artmedia Gallery is proud to present Disquieting force, a solo exhibition featuring the work of Brazilian artist José Diniz.

Disquieting force gathers works chosen from three of the artist’s photographic proposals: Maresia (2009-2013), originally a long series; Movement (2012), composed by few images; and Nocturnas (2006-2010), a singular and short series. The silent video Movement (2012) joined the selection of photographs. The display of the exhibition is inspired by a segment of the Russian Room conceived by the artist and designer El Lissitzky and his wife Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers for the Film  und Foto exhibition that took place in 1929 in Stuttgart, Germany..

The photographic work of José Diniz has caught the critics’ attention in the last years. Even though the starting point of the work is digital color photographs, the post-production of these gives them unique visual qualities.

The viewer can immediately perceive two main characteristics of the José Diniz’s work: one, its settlement in strong black and white contrasts, with an expressive distribution of lights and shadows, and two, its powerful constructive condition that allows spectators to identify the geometric structures that help make the compositions, always resolved with economy of signs. The latest being the artist’s taste for constructivist abstraction. There is, moreover, almost a film-like quality in these images, as, though they are stills, they give a sensation of movement.

It has been affirmed, also in the artist’s words, that Diniz is interested in exploring the sea as a space of specific physical, emotional and visual experiences. However, the statements of his works go further than the artist’s words. It is true that his work presents itself as detached from the conceptual zone of contemporary art and that it works as a repertoire of devices for the generation of sensations and emotions, but it does not allow for sentimentalism. It also does not bring us back to already consumed models to investigate photography as visual art, but it develops its own understanding of a new way to see. Here, the viewer’s mood changes happen due to the solid structure of form, as well as the dynamic movement, ambiguity and abstraction of the subject matter.

About the artist:

José Diniz was born in Niteroi and currently lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photography,
engraving and video are his main artistic media. His work has been vastly exhibited in Latin America, Europe and the U.S. It is also part of both private and institutional collections such as: the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Lehigh University Art Galleries, Pennsylvania; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro/Coleção Joaquim Paiva; Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Salta, Argentina; Museo de Bellas Artes Franklin Rawson, San Juan, Argentina.

About the curator:

José Antonio Navarrete is a critic and curator residing in Miami, FL. As part of an international academic team, he is currently developing an investigation on the subject of Intellectual Networks: Art and Politic in Latin-America, financed by the “Connecting Art Histories” program of the JP Getty Foundation, 2012-2013. He is also curating the exhibition En el lugar de lo dicho. Exploraciones en el archivo discursivo de la fotografía, promoted by the Centro de Fotografía de Montevideo (Uruguay), which will open in November at the country’s Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales.

About the gallery:

Artmedia Gallery was founded in 2012. Located at the Wynwood Art District in Miami, Florida, the gallery’s mission is to exhibit and promote contemporary art. One of the gallery’s central objectives is to explore the vast possibilities of the expanded notion of art thru technography media, with photography and video as the major core of its interest.
Artmedia Gallery’s exhibition program follows rigorous curatorial criteria, providing a space for reflection and critique. The exhibitions include local and around the world artists with a wide range of subjectivities and poetics that enrich the current sensibility.