firstsite contemporary art colchester

13 May – 24 June 2006
Brigida Baltar

FIRSTSITE is delighted to host the first solo exhibition in the UK of emerging Brazilian artist Brígida Baltar.

Baltar will be in residence at firstsite in May, developing a new installation across four gallery spaces – using the fabric of her Rio De Janeiro home.

She will bring with her red brick dust – taken from her home – to question notions of “home”; attempting in the process to make this intangible property solid and tangible.

This will be the next step in a series of investigations using brick dust that Baltar has presented over the past few years, in a range of venues.

Parallels will be made between the artist’s own experience and the former domestic use of firstsite’s present building: a red-brick Georgian Town House.

Using a heavily processed-based and often performative practice Baltar will distil what home means to her; to suggest that “her home is her and she is her home”.

A related project that Baltar is renowned for is Coleta da Heblina, (Collecting Humidity).

Represented several times, this piece too involves film, performance, sculpture and drawings in an attempt to collect and capture dew in the mountains above Rio.

As in “An Indoor Heaven,” the artist implements several activities and processes in an exploration of something abstract and intangible.

Baltar’s exhibition is part of firstsite’s ongoing commitment to Latin American Art and will be accompanied by works from UECLAA – the University of Essex’s Collection of Latin American art, the largest and most important collection of its kind in Europe.

Brígida Baltar was born in 1959 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she continues to work and live. She began formal study of art in 1980 at Parque Lage in Rio. Widely exhibited in her native Brazil, Baltar has only recently been included in two group exhibitions in the United States: Thread Unravelled, Museu del Barrio, NY (2001) and Art Chicago through Nara Roesler Gallery (2001).

She has exhibited at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio,
Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel and the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, California.

Um Céu Entre Paredes (An Indoor Heaven) has been developed in collaboration with Nara Roesler Gallery Sao Paulo and will be accompanied by a new publication investigating her brick dust pieces with an essay by Guy Brett.

	Brigida Baltar, Ghost Crab 13 May – 24 June 2006 Brigida Baltar FIRSTSITE is delighted to host the first solo exhibition in the UK of emerging Brazilian artist Brígida Baltar. Baltar will be in residence at firstsite in May, developing a new installation across four gallery spaces – using the fabric of her Rio De Janeiro home. She will bring with her red brick dust – taken from her home – to question notions of “home”; attempting in the process to make this intangible property solid and tangible. This will be the next step in a series of investigations using brick dust that Baltar has presented over the past few years, in a range of venues. Parallels will be made between the artist’s own experience and the former domestic use of firstsite’s present building: a red-brick Georgian Town House. Using a heavily processed-based and often performative practice Baltar will distil what home means to her; to suggest that “her home is her and she is her home”. A related project that Baltar is renowned for is Coleta da Heblina, (Collecting Humidity). Represented several times, this piece too involves film, performance, sculpture and drawings in an attempt to collect and capture dew in the mountains above Rio. As in “An Indoor Heaven,” the artist implements several activities and processes in an exploration of something abstract and intangible. Baltar’s exhibition is part of firstsite’s ongoing commitment to Latin American Art and will be accompanied by works from UECLAA – the University of Essex’s Collection of Latin American art, the largest and most important collection of its kind in Europe. Brígida Baltar was born in 1959 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she continues to work and live. She began formal study of art in 1980 at Parque Lage in Rio. Widely exhibited in her native Brazil, Baltar has only recently been included in two group exhibitions in the United States: Thread Unravelled, Museu del Barrio, NY (2001) and Art Chicago through Nara Roesler Gallery (2001). She has exhibited at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel and the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, California. Um Céu Entre Paredes (An Indoor Heaven) has been developed in collaboration with Nara Roesler Gallery Sao Paulo and will be accompanied by a new publication investigating her brick dust pieces with an essay by Guy Brett.