Etching Exhibition News Printmaking What's On

Elizabeth Xi Bauer | Phantom Dance

posted by Robyn Pitts March 29, 2023

London gallery, Elizabeth Xi Bauer, are presenting Phantom Dance; an exhibition of new works by Theodore Ereira-Guyer and Thiago Barbalho. Though the artists are friends and nourish an intellectual exchange for many years, it is the first time that their works will be exhibited together.

For the show, which will take place from 21st April through to 3rd June 2023, the two artists’ works dialogue through varying mediums. Multiple double-sided stacks of large format etchings by Ereira-Guyer will be installed so that they hang from the gallery ceiling to form a false wall which will intersect the space. Created using different hues and densities of green, these etchings have been sewn onto silk and stitched together to create objects with architectural qualities. Exhibited with this will be two sizeable drawings by Barbalho along with a selection of smaller drawings by the artist which will be hung on the walls around the larger works. Ereira-Guyer has also created new sculptures which will be shown as part of the exhibition. These comprise of portraits made of bronze as well as animal figures conceived by etching into plaster.

Thiago Barbalho | Fireflies and sprouts
2023. Coloured pencils, graphite, ballpoint pen, permanent marker, acrylic and resin on canvas
40 x 30 cm | 15.7 x 11.8 in

Theodore Ereira Guyer, Ibis, 2022 – 23.
Etching into plaster, stones, 150 x 94 x 15 cm.
Courtesy the Artist and Elizabeth Xi Bauer
Gallery, London

Theodore Ereira-Guyer’s work is an ongoing investigation into the subject of memory – what is kept and what is left behind. In a metalinguistic operation, his process of printmaking emulates the mechanism of memory, as it necessarily involves a loss of information between the plate and the paper.

Thiago Barbalho uses art as a visual language as a medium to explore his creative output. His works are the results of facing the limits of rationality, keeping the same hand gesture of writing to explode its own borders. Having published short stories, novels and poetry, the artist began to develop a pictorial language. Barbalho’s work is rich in shapes and materials, choosing to work in such mediums as graphite, coloured pencils, ballpoint pen, permanent marker and acrylic, oil and pastel paints.

Falcon, 2022-23. Etching into plaster, stones, 56 x 76 x 18 cm

Thiago Barbalho | Sun eaters 2023.
Coloured pencils, graphite, ballpoint pen, permanent marker, acrylic and resin on canvas
40 x 30 cm | 15.7 x 11.8 in

Phantom Dance, the title of this exhibition, derives from both artists, as they explain, displaying their works together evokes the spirit of dancing. Paradoxes are the focus of the show; absences and presences within the works as well as between the works. Negative spaces are the phantoms in this exhibition, that dance between each other.

Thiago Barbalho I covered my eyes
2023. Coloured pencils, graphite, ballpoint pen, permanent marker, acrylic and resin on canvas.
40 x 30 cm | 15.7 x 11.8 in

Phantom Dance will run from 21st April to 3rd June 2023, open Wednesday through to Saturday, 12 – 6 pm or by appointment. A Private View will be held on 20th April 2023, 6 – 8 pm in the presence of artists. Fuel Tank, 8-12 Creekside, London, SE8 3DX.