News

Red light: Sexuality and representation in the Norlinda and José Lima Collection

João Penalva
Centro de Arte Oliva, S.João da Madeira, Portugal
26 September 2020 - 14 March 2021

RED LIGHT presents a selection of works from the Norlinda and José Lima Art Collection, having as a common point the approach to sexuality, unfolded in multiple topics, both presented in a counterpoint complement and in a jarring confrontation: the representation of the body, male and female nudity , eroticism, fantasy, desire and pain, object and subject, pleasure and domination, the places of female representation, the male gaze, voyeurism, exhibitionism and self-representation in art.

Talking about sexuality and the relationship between bodies during a pandemic that forces withdrawal and even abstaining from physical contact is also reflecting on the consequences of distance while exercising. The simultaneous fragility of the individual and the community, conditioned by the fear of contagion, what space and what conditions allows the desired collective and individual encounter of bodies? And what role can evocation of eroticism (or the erotic vocation) of art play in the reevaluation of desire and risk in a society henceforth more attentive to the meaning and implications of physical proximity?

The exhibited works are organized outside a monolithic view of the theme, the chronology and the attempt to categorize movements, mixing different origins and periods. The exhibition includes works by more than seventy artists, including Alberto García-Alix, Albuquerque Mendes, Álvaro Lapa, Andres Serrano, Eduardo Arroyo, Graça Pereira Coutinho, Gonçalo Pena, João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva, João Penalva, Júlia Ventura, Pedro Casqueiro, Mauro Cerqueira, Muntean / Rosenblum, Nancy Spero, Rosa Carvalho, Ricardo Valentim, Vasco Barata and Sam Samore.