Substance 3 2015

Curator: Rodrigo Franzao's “Substance 3,” created in 2015, strikes me as an intensely personal outpouring, a frenetic landscape of color and line rendered through a mixed-media approach including acrylic paint. Editor: My immediate reaction is that it is overwhelming, visually stimulating and perhaps even unsettling. There's a sense of chaos, almost aggressive in its energy. Curator: I'd argue the composition resonates with historical dialogues of Abstract Expressionism. Think about the artist channeling inner turmoil onto the canvas, negotiating anxieties about identity. Where does Franzao position himself within these traditions? The artist might engage with themes of existential angst so prevalent in the post-war era and continue that tradition. Editor: But also consider its Fauvist leanings with its celebration of unrestrained color! Those bold choices feel very intentional in disrupting conventional artistic values, possibly reflecting larger societal shifts at play in the early 21st century. Curator: Yes! Looking more deeply, the geometry emerges—a structural framework providing some semblance of order. How might these calculated elements interact with the perceived disorder, especially considering the artist’s choice to name the piece "Substance 3?” Could there be an intentional allusion to societal structures struggling against an emerging chaos in identity or societal power structures? Editor: The metallic staples piercing through the canvas also invite inquiry into the politics of art, don't they? How the institution quite literally 'binds' the artwork in history, and maybe even the socio-political landscape the work comments on. The materiality of the canvas speaks loudly too. It is, as a visual artifact, carrying a message within the museum as an institution. Curator: I agree that Franzao's manipulation of materiality becomes a form of critique. But this analysis opens up many important avenues for critical thinking. Editor: Thinking about it this way gives new perspective into how to interact with and consume art as it sits on the canvas.