On view until 5th October, Lucas Arruda: Deserto-Modelo is the first major solo exhibition in France to span the artist’s career. The exhibition includes works from different periods, including some produced specifically for the occasion. Known primarily for his paintings, Lucas Arruda also produces films and installations.

Lucas Arruda’s paintings are never created “sur le motif” or based on photographs, but are always mnemonic reconstructions close to abstraction. Like the impressionists, however, the question of light and discernable projection of a form of introspection is particularly perceptible in them. As the artist wrote, “Light is at the centre of my work. It is movement. It is light that guides my painting, which creates intensity and finishes by creating spaces that are neither abstract nor figurative”. Although small in size, Lucas Arruda’s paintings are imbued with dramatic tension, and it is clear that each brushstroke is decisive, paradoxically monumental given the scale of the canvas.

This exhibition is presented in parallel to another major show of the artist’s work at Musée d’Orsay in Paris, on the occasion of the 2024 France-Brazil season, in the Impressionist Gallery.

Arruda’s landscapes exist at the point of tension between abstraction and figuration, between appearance and emptiness. With each glance, experiences are delimited in a process of construction and reconstruction of memory.

This exhibition is part of the Carré d’Art program, which aims to present monographs by established artists such as Walid Raad, Wolfgang Tillmans and Nairy Baghramian, as well as younger artists such as Tarik Kiswanson and Latoya Ruby Frazier.